[laurie6781]

This was The Elder's Meditation this morning, one of my 'daily morning meditations' that I do:

Elder's Meditation of the Day February 19

The Old Man said, `you are both ugly and
handsome and you must accept your ugli-
ness as well as your handsomeness in order
to really accept yourself."
--Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA

My Grandfather told me one time that any person who is judg-
mental to another is also judgmental to themselves. If we want
to be free of being judgmental, we need to first work on how
judgmental we are to ourselves.

If we quit judging ourselves and start accepting ourselves as
we are, we will start accepting others as they are. Then we will
experience a level of new freedom.

Great Spirit, let me accept myself as I am --honoring both my
strengths and my weaknesses.

You know it took me quite a while into Recovery (at least 2 years) to finally understand, that when I was being judgmental and/or taking another's inventory, IN REALITY I was being very judgmental and hard on myself. If I could point the figure elsewhere, I didn't need to look at me.

In reality, I had NOT ACCEPTED me yet, with ALL my faults. I had not accepted that I could SLOWLY change those faults. I had to learn to stop BEATING UP on me. I had to learn to stop the "Should, Could, and Would" and just do my very best each day. Not judging me, but working on my defaults.

I still work on my defaults. I am still growing and changing and will until the day I leave this realm.

How about you? Are you learning to accept you?

Love and hugs,