Everyday we look at ourselves in the mirror and make a decision. Do we like ourselves or not. That decision plays a big part in how our day goes. We don’t even consciously make this decision. We just do it.

The big picture is compassion. It is the proverbial air mask. Have compassion for yourself and you can give more compassion to others.

I have a set amount of compassion that I start the day with. And if I am not refilling it by being compassionate to myself and allowing others to  have compassion for me, I dry up and become even more of a grouch than I can be. That means that I forgive myself for being stupid and forgetting something. I don’t knock myself out about it all day. Then when someone needs me to have compassion for their frailties. I can give it to them. This is not just something that I have done forever. This is something that I struggle with everyday. I am not perfect. Even though I want to be and want everything I do to be perfect. Which in the long run is not very self-compassionate.

I am also learning to just accept my faults and my idiosyncrasies as they are. I may never actually grow up and that is fine. I have grown up friends. Whom I adore. I just can never be like them. And no matter how much I want my birthday dinner party to be grown up and elegant I would probably still sit at the kids table so I  may as well just dispense with the grown up table completely. And just go with the rubber ducky themed fiftieth birthday party. Next year I’ll try grown up.  And that is fine. I can be good with who I am. I say this after trying to convince myself to be someone I am not. Which is not a very compassionate thing to do.

So, going into a time of year where people tend to not treat themselves very well. And have very little compassion for themselves and whether they got the right present for someone. It is time to accept that we are who we are. All the warts and all. And that is a wonderful thing. Because there is only one of me. A very precious thing. And only one you. An immensely precious thing.  So treat yourself with love and compassion. Because we are all who we are, amazing beings in a world of possibility.