Appreciation Appreciates

We've been meeting now for 10 months.

This amazing group of women and me.

I'll never know how I got an invitation to this cool club; but I am blessed none the less.

And in the time that we've gathered, long enough to physically birth a baby; we've been birthing and transforming and shaping ourselves in the world right before our eyes.

Tonight, we took a step toward manifesting our intentions by participating in a sacred ritual.  Surrounded by candlelight and stones, we assembled a council of appreciation...an opportunity to honor "the other" and to share in a very personal way what their presence has meant in our lives.

It was vulnerable, emotional, powerful and so God damned rare that I wish I could harness the energy and pull it out of my back pocket when I'm in need of courage, back bone, will, determination and memory that indeed, others see me in a light that I don't often view in myself.

And this is how it goes right?

We're so willing to see the light in others....the gifts they bring, the ways that they make the world and our lives so much better.  But when it comes time to appreciate who we are...we cringe, second guess, over analyze, dismiss, self deprecate, fill in the blanks with the things we lack instead of all that abounds.

At least that's what I do.

But at the gut level, we viscerally know that what we appreciate appreciates.  That which we cultivate grows.  Whatever we tend to flourishes...both the positive and the negative.

So, if we decide that we're not enough based on fear, lack of experience or past performance...well than, it's self-fulfilling and we probably won't.

But if for one moment, we believe in what others see and choose to appreciate who we are; we gradually build the strength to honor that maybe, just maybe, we are enough.

Most likely, we are more than enough.

The exercise of looking another in the eye and saying, "This is why and what I appreciate about you," is tremendous in and of itself...but the act of looking yourself in the mirror and honoring who you are and what you bring is where it starts.

Day over day, month over month, year over year...those beliefs become truth and that truth is what changes the world...one word at a time.