Give Yourself Flowers

🪨🧗🏻‍♀️I've been having a pretty miserable few months. I found myself incredibly depressed and disillusioned, so I decided to make a top three list of qualities that like about myself.

🧒🏻🛌🏻1. I had a rough childhood. When I was 11, I cried myself to sleep for more than a year (I kept count because... neurodivergence :). I realize my early pain has helped me to spot pain and loneliness in other people. When I see it in others, I try so hard to help.

🧸⛈️That's why now I'll drop EVERYTHING to make a child smile. That's why, I think, I'm often the person people call when they are in trouble.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👧👨‍👩‍👧‍👧2. I'm never distracted by the passions of the mob. I'm always leery of the 'prevailing wisdom' of the mainstream. My focus has always been on the fringes and the margins. Some of the best people I've ever met were hiding out on the periphery.

🕴️I recognized, early and often, the fringes are where the best ideas and people are. The fringes can be where the progress happens.

🫗🚨🛟3. When I see something going wrong, when I know people are getting hurt, I am relentless in my efforts to expose the harm and fix things. I've been doing this my entire career. Nothing can stop me from trying address wrongs and injustices. This work is always thankless, and my victories are almost always pyrrhic. That never, ever stops me. I adore an underdog. I abhor a bully.

🧱🧱Obstinancy is my superpower. I will not stop until the work is done.

💐💐If you are like me, feeling uncertain, stressed or burnt out, join me in sharing the three things you like about yourself.

#GiveYourselfSomeFlowers 💐