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I Can Love Myself

I used to think
that you could measure a person’s worth
by how many and how much
people loved them.
I don’t know when
or how
or why I did,
but I believed it.
I treated it as a known fact.
 
But I was wrong.
Man, was I ever wrong.
 
How much or how many people love you,
it has nothing,
nothing at all,
to do with how much you are worth.
 
You don’t need it.
None of it.
It’s nice,
but it’s not necessary.
 
I was so unhappy,
for so long,
and I didn’t need to be.
 
I wanted to be loved.
I didn’t realize,
I can love myself.
 
I can wrap my arms around myself and say
“You’re lovely, dear. I’m so glad you’re alive.”
and mean it.
 
I can go to sleep and wake up to my own smile.
 
I can take myself out,
spend time with myself,
and get to know myself better.
 
I can tell myself
“You look nice today.”
 
I have the ability to have faith in myself,
lift myself up,
and let myself know how wonderful I can be.
 
And when I’m crying,
I can tell myself
“It’s alright baby girl, you can make it through.”
 
I can love myself.
 
It’s not selfish,
it’s the opposite.
Because I’m not so tied up in my self-loathing,
and I have time to see all the good things around me.
 
Bad things are easy to see.
They’re sharp and painful and usually blatantly obvious.
 
But good stuff is challenging.
It’s soft,
and warm,
and fuzzy.
Good things don’t want to be obvious.
They shouldn’t be.
Because then they wouldn’t be so special when you finally find them.
 
And maybe that’s why it took me so long to discover that I can make myself happy.
I don’t need someone else to do it.
 
I can be alone,
and not lonely.

love yourself, uplifting, self-love,
encouraging, positive, self-image, happiness, good stuff, good, lonely

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