When I listen carefully...

When I listen carefully, I hear my heart say: You are enough. Be humble. Be forgiving.

Being enough means carrying myself with a confidence and gentle ease that says, "No, I haven't done everything, but I trust in my competence and work ethic to leave a place better than I found it without sacrificing the needs of people around me or compromising my beliefs in the process."

Enough is having the self respect to know that there are certain environments or people I will walk away from because I repeatedly feel uncertain, expendable, and empty in them, but it is my responsibility to leave or confront them, else I lose the right to complain.

Being humble means understanding that I will never know the right answer every time and it is my responsibility to keep learning and listening to people with different perspectives, feelings, and experiences before trying to voice my own.

Humility is being kind and patient to those with a contrasting opinion in spite of what I believe to be true. Moments of frustration are no excuse for explaining my "rightness" while being a wiseass - it is not only unattractive, but childish.

Being forgiving means knowing that the human condition is fraught with screw ups and the only way to move forward is to have compassion for myself and others by letting mistakes go. A ruthless, uncaring world is one I do not want to live in and I must seek everyday as an opportunity to let go of my ego by finding forgiveness even in the moments where it is most difficult.

When I listen carefully, I hear my heart say: You are enough. Be humble. Be forgiving.