I Yam What I Yam...And I Love Me Still

I got a revelation, y'all. Come close because I don't want you to miss nary a minute of what I have to say. Lean in, closer, closer...yeah right there...What I want to tell you is: I LOVE ME SOME ME!!!!!!!!!! Yessir, yes ma'am, yessiree Bob and all of that. Today, at this moment, at this place in time: I am comfortable in my own skin.

That's a mouthful and it's no small endeavor. See, I am a self-reflective person. I constantly do a checks and balance on myself to see how I measure up to the person I want to be. Most times, I'm on point. But sometimes, well, sometimes--I fall short. Yeah, because even when I want to be better, I get stuck in the frailty of human emotion (and dare I say, ego) and I mess up. I don't always get it right. However, even in my moments of making mistakes or of doing a little less than I intended, I still love me. Yeah, I do. You know why? Because I should--plain and simple. There is no fancy equation or formula, it just is what it 'tis.

Often, we start looking sideways and comparing ourselves to the Jones' or whomever and we don't quite measure up in our estimation. But that's the problem--you don't know them people or what they are dealing with, so stop trying to be like them. Stop trying to do what they do and be how they be. Now, don't get me wrong--there isn't anything wrong with trying to find suitable role models and wanting to better yourself. As the kids say, "that's what's up" (translation: it is a good thing). But the danger is in living your life based on what other people do and say. The danger is in feeling as if you never are enough or that you can never get enough. That is dangerous, indeed. There is some satisfaction to be found in the scope of who you are. There is some satisfaction to be found in the YOU of who you are.

Come closer, I want to tell you something. Lean in closely and soak up all I have to say: YOU ARE YOUR BEST THING (Beloved reference). Fareal, fareal. If no one has ever told you before, I want you to know that there is beauty in every breath you take, in all of your moments. There is joy, hope, love, kindness, patience and peace inside of you. No one can take what you don't offer. See, I love me some me and it is no small statement I make when I tell you that I embrace myself--all my beauty, my pain, my joys, my sorrows, my missteps and my me. I love me and as I am changing, I continue to see the best of who I will become, one day, someday. But today, right now, at this moment in time, I love me just as I am. Do you love you?

Peace.

Jennifer Hudson "I Am Changing"