I Am Enough

I shared a heartbreaking story with a friend about someone I knew from graduate school who had been exploited, along with her daughter, through her child’s vulnerability. My friend then passed on a mantra that has now deeply impressed everyone I have shared it with: “The first thing I say to myself when I wake up in the morning is ‘I am enough,'” she said. “After that, I know that I can greet my daughter as she wakes up and let her know that whatever she has to confront, I am prepared to meet that too,” she confided. What a wonderful way to greet the day: With crucial information necessary for meeting the surprises that might be in store for us but also the daily challenges interlaced throughout those moments that challenge our feelings of sufficiency. I was flipping through several popular magazines last night and saw all of the shoes that they wanted me to buy, the parties that I was not invited to attend, the people who I should want to know but do not and I decided that “I am enough,” despite what they think is missing. Knowing that I am enough gives me the power to disagree with the glossiest of authorities.