You ARE Good Enough!

What struck me this week in my numerous interactions is how often some people don't believe they are "_____ enough." Fill in the blank with any adjective such as "thin" "smart" "creative", or the one that hurts the most: "good". Many of my clients don't believe they are "good enough".
What does that belief about our self really mean? Whom are we measuring up to? What standard, or high expectation, do we measure our level of good-ness against? It pains me when I hear someone denigrate him or herself. Is it possible that HaShem looks upon us in sorrow when we believe that we are not "good enough"? After all, we are created in beauty. How quickly we forget how holy and "good enough" we truly are.
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Doorways

Endings and beginnings... doorways to the future and past. I'm not one to make "new year's resolutions" for I tend to pay more attention to things like the seasonal changes, or my birthday, as signposts for growth. However, any opportunity to stop and take stock of life is a good one. Standing in that doorway and looking back to see what you've learned and how you have matured is always helpful. Getting stuck there is not. But, take that in-between moment and savor it, because it is neither past nor future. The past is done, and you are greeting the future. Your future can be shaped by your past actions, certainly, but you also have the power to make other choices. To repair where it is needed, no matter how difficult a task that may be.... but, for this moment, on the cusp, just pause and enjoy the beauty of the present.
Open your heart to All That Is, and let the sensation and beauty of that wash over you. You are a perfect being, containing everything there ever was and will be.
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Sh'viti

In this moment, I am content. I have my health, my family, my friends, my pets, a good job, a great place to live. Now, illusion being what it is, of course all of us have all or some of these things, but do we always stop to think about them? Do we keep HaShem's blessings in the forefront of our minds/hearts? Sh'viti.... God is always with me/before me. There is a prayer/blessing I learned at a retreat sponsored by Walking Stick Foundation, founded by R. Gershon Winkler. It is an ancient Lakota prayer, I believe, but it is relevant to anyone. "May you walk in beauty. May beauty be beside you. May beauty be behind you. May beauty be before you. May beauty be below you. May beauty be above you." I add, "May beauty be with you every step of the way" Beauty is the Abundant Blessings of The Creator. The key for us is to know that we are always surrounded by this beauty every moment of every day.