i'm imperfect & i'm enough

I am imperfect, and I am enough

This is a lesson I am learning over and over again with the help of Brene Brown.  Her book, The Gift of Imperfections has been my go to read each night as I travel down the road of whole hearted living.  

It is not easy to put ourselves out there into the world.  It is not easy to be seen, to be heard, and to not always be accepted.  But my goodness, it is oh so necessary to living.  

We must . . .
Show up each day
Show the world our smile
Be who we are

There will always be critiques.  People will always choose to judge us.  What matters is what we choose to do.  What road we decide to travel on.  Because it isn't the critiques that count.  What matters is that you took a chance, and showed up.  

And as Theodore Roosevelt has so eloquently said:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."