Self-doubts

If you ever want to feel better about yourself, just ask a bunch of people to say good things about you. I'm serious. For the past week, in response to my last post, I've had all sorts of people sending me email telling me great things about me and my writing. "Wow, really!?" was my most common reaction, "I never knew that." I think that most of us live with some nagging self-doubts that usually come down to "Am I good enough?" (to be loved). Even those of us who outwardly seem to have it all together are plagued by self-doubts. I often get stuck because of this. A while back, one of the other bloggers who seems to have it all together confessed that he often gets overwhelmed and shuts down.

I've been away from blogs for the past week or two, and so it was serendipitous that as I was getting my self-doubts dissolved by praise from people, Boni suggested a kindler gentler blog community and suggested that we write good things about one another. I peeked at a couple of the lists of kind words that some of you had put together, and I could tell it must have been painful to switch from the edginess and witty sarcasm in which we all engage, to the open-hearted praise. Well-done to everyone, and kudos to Boni for calling us to a higher standard of love -- that's what it is -- at least for one blog entry!.

Now, if you want, take the bold and vulnerable step of posting a "Say some nice things about me" entry.

For some reason this reminds me of a quote I first heard in the movie, Akeela and the Bee:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually who are you not to be? . . . We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us."

Marianne Williamson's from A Return to Love