Day 2

Day 2 – From my friend Erika’s Instagram post, which was balm to my moody day:

“This leaf jumped out at me today. Not literally. But sort of. I was in a cranky as shit, push the world away, close my heart kinda mood and, well, there it was. And of course, it fits perfectly with the message in today’s cards: Keep giving what you’ve got to give. Give out only what you want to receive.”

I was feeling small, stuck in my own self and thoughts and heart, worrying that what I have to give isn’t enough. It wasn’t until I pulled Erika’s post up a second time later that day, to regain some inspiration, that I realized her impact on me, that what she is putting out there helps me, what I’m putting out there will help you (I hope). It doesn’t take the perfect word, just the expression of one’s authentic self.

The words themselves in this blog post are perfect, as it happens to be, but that she said them reminds me that we can, and do, all help each other.

I really bristled, a few months ago, at the Op-Ed in the New York Times titled, Unless You’re Oprah, ‘Be Yourself” is Terrible Advice.’  I disagree with the ideas behind this article because “being yourself” isn’t the same as being your authentic self, which is a self acting as a function of the larger world’s wisdom, but instead is some weird, ego-driven false self.

Anyway, if you’re afraid to put it out there, your story never gets the chance to help someone else. If you never share it (from a place of kindness, generosity, and love), you’ll never know how it could help someone else. Lydia Yuknavitch, author of the incredible memoir, “The Chronology of Water,” said in a recent interview in Lenny Letter “I believe in art the way other people believe in God.” I read that as: art gives people faith.