Being the Best YOU you can be

My lifelong friend, Kathleen, was over for a little visit last week.

While the kids (her daughter and my two) were running around the house laughing and playing, Kath and I sat at the kitchen table and did what we do best . . . we vented . . . about life. Mind you, both Kathleen and I have incredible lives. We know it. And don't worry . . . we both are spiritual in nature, and often count our blessings and give thanks for what we have. But every once in a while, we need to vent it out and talk about those little, nonsensical things that are weighing us down. Our sessions are few and far between, but when they take place, we can both usually bring the other out of whatever funk we may be going through at the moment.

It was just like that last week.

"When is enough . . . enough?" Kath asked.

Like so many women out there in the world, we both have been feeling like we are moving in a thousand directions at any given moment. And we often feel like we are not meeting the needs of our children, our partners, our homes, our extended families, our jobs, our lives. We recognize that we are not the spring chickens we were some 20 years ago . . . when the drama of our days seem far simpler and much less important. Now, concerns over our own health and well-being are starting to come into focus, and realization that we can't do it all is surfacing.

"When is enough . . . enough?" she asked.

"When you stop and tell yourself . . . I am doing the best that I can," I answered.

This is my new mantra.

Did I tell you? I am honestly doing the very best that I can, each and every day.

And that is the best that I can do.

I think that's what it is all about. I think we can be a little bit easier on ourselves when we stop and say to ourselves, "Listen . . . I am doing the best that I can!" Perhaps the best I am doing doesn't seem like the best for those in my life. But you know what? It doesn't matter.

For a long time, I was hard on myself. Trying to make everyone happy. Trying to fulfill all the requests everyone else had of me. Trying to be everywhere and do everything. But after 40+ years . . . I can't do it anymore. This year, it's about ME. (Remember?)

It doesn't make us hard people. It doesn't make us cruel, or selfish, or unkind. It simply takes some of the load off of us.  Each and every day I wake up and tell myself that that I am going to be the best person I can be. I am going to smile, I am going to laugh, I am going to love my children with every single ounce of love I have, I am going to teach them to be kind to others, I am going to be the very best ME that I can be.

I may not call everyone I should call today. I may not get the floors washed, or the laundry done, or visit my mom, or call my brother, or stop by my mother-in-laws. I may not make home-made waffles or iron all my husbands shirts (I'll leave those things to Egg-o and the dry cleaners), but I swear, I am going to be the very best ME that I can be today.

And that, my friends, is when enough . . . is enough.

Join me, won't you? Take a deep breath in . . . and out. And let it go.

Be the best you can be.

And know that it is enough.

Today.

Feel free to copy the photo and save it in a post of your own today!
PG made this cheesecake for me for my birthday this year . . . FROM SCRATCH!
It was incredible!
It was shortly after enjoying a piece of it that I decided to start LIVING life . . .
really living it . . .
and letting go of the stress of it all.
Gotta love cheesecake, right?

Wishing you Peace, my friends.