Enough

“You’re not horrible, you’re human. People are always getting those two confused.”


It seems to be a hallmark of human nature that we are either too hard on ourselves, or nowhere near hard enough. We're either mocking those in need of compassion, or we're mentally bludgeoning ourselves into a state of despair because we're not doing and being all the things we think we should.

There's a happy medium between the two, I'm sure of it. But if so, it rarely has the spotlight shone on it. If you spend any amount of time on social media especially, you see the best and the worst of human nature on display. The braying hyenas, the vicious jackals, the soul-weary saints and the aspiring angels.

I have an awful lot more of the latter in my life. And when those saints and almost-angels start beating on themselves because they feel like they are not "enough," it's all I can do not to go all impassioned-loving-speech on them (except sometimes when I give in, because love). 

Here's one of those speeches, because I woke up today feeling like this needed to be said to someone, somewhere, and maybe it's you:

If you worry that you are not kind enough, giving enough, AMAZING enough, then odds are that you're pretty freakin' fantastic. Because you're striving, and you're yearning, and you're aspiring. And yes, it is important to do good rather than just want to or intend to. But before the good there IS the intention, the desire. If you have that, then the seed of amazingness has already been planted in you.

Please. Celebrate that.

And please resist the voice in the back of your mind, the insidious whisper telling you that you have never been, and will never be "enough." If it gets its hands on a mental megaphone, STEAL THE BATTERIES. Surround yourself with people who accept the now of you and not just the potential of you. Shout your praise of all that is good and loving and kind in the people YOU love, because there are whispering voices in their minds too, and one of the most beautiful, most joy-worthy aspects of humanity is that we have the power TO DROWN THEM OUT.

Be a loud voice. Be the bright and shining creature you have it in you to be. And when you can't, when the weariness brings you down so low you forget you ever had the power to shine at all, remember this:

"Feeling and being are not the same. You are not one dark thought, one sad moment, or one awful day. You are oh so much, so infinitely MORE."


You are enough. Still imperfect, still striving to be better, to be more. I use the word enough not to imply stagnation, that we should stop and say to ourselves, "I've come far enough. I'll stay here, because surely nothing better is within my reach." This is what the nasty whispering voice wants you to do. That voice craves dark, despair, and a squandering of the light that is YOU.

You are enough to move forward. You are enough to strive. You are enough to love. You are enough to be worthy of joy. And if doubt of those facts ever overwhelms you, tell me. Tell me, and I will shout the amazingness of you so loud, that whispering voice won't have a hope in hell of being heard.


4 comments:

  1. Thank you Kimberly, it was me who needed that!

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  2. Wow, I seriously needed this. I may have teared up reading this, and may be considering hanging it up on my wall. ;)
    Thank you so much.

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  3. Thank you, Kim. You are enough, too. And I so love reading your words.

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  4. thank you *wipes a tear or two away*
    here's to being enough . . . and moving forward :)

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