Imperfect & Enough

A milestone birthday is creeping, no running, up on me!  It's a birthday, an age that once seemed oh, so distant, and oh, so very, very old.  Here's the thing, friends...it's a NUMBER.  The view from inside my head hasn't changed that much.  The shell, well, that's a different story.  When I pass a mirror, I see my mother-oops, no, that's me!  When I imagine how I look, I see my much younger self so the reflection always comes as somewhat of a shock.  I feel young---younger.  The running joke is that I'm 45.  45 is a good age-old enough yet young enough, right?  Honestly, I don't think I feel much different than I did  at 45.  My body, however, did not get the memo---sigh.

Another funny thing about getting older---I honestly thought that once I reached this golden age, the youth of my old age, I'd be sure of myself.  I thought I'd have it all figured out.  Um, no and no.  Apparently, I am a work in progress and will be until I am not.

When Oprah first teamed with Brene Brown to offer Brene's class, The Gifts of Imperfection, I was truly intrigued.  It seemed like a lot of money-correction it was/is a lot of money for me at this stage of the game.  An email came before Christmas-another chance to take the course.  This time, I decided to do it.  This class is a gift to myself, a way to ring in this monumental year.

Brene first came to my attention through Ali Edwards' blog, pre-Oprah.  Ali lead me to Brene's blog.  Her writing, her research resonates with me.  I bought her books; I shared her blog with family and friends.  When Oprah discovered Brene, I kind of felt like I had one up on Oprah-hah!

This week, I started the class, The Gifts of Imperfection.  We got off to a bit of a rough start as the website had technical difficulties, but the problem was corrected, the grand adventure started.

This is one of the first assignments.  Coincidently, my one word (Ali Edwards) for 2014 is the word 

ENOUGH...

I have enough.

I do enough.

I AM ENOUGH,

and more than enough.

Because I have enough, I do enough, and I am enough, I plan to spend time focusing on gifts, practicing gratitude thus proving I have enough and I am enough.  

There are challenges, for sure...obstacles.  I'll be attempting to break a lifetime of self-deprecating patterns.  Becoming who I am meant to be is tough.  Not worrying about what others think-geez, I'm not even sure I can do that.  Accepting and going with my imperfections, wow-hard.  Deciding I'm worthy-phew, how do you do that?  

The journey begins...

an art journal for The Gifts of Imperfection,

a scrapbook for one little word,

A Thousand Gifts Journal...

that's the plan!