May 16--Self-Worth

To have that sense of one's intrinsic worth... is potentially to have everything.
  --Joan Didion

     I've been at the extreme low end of the self-worth scale, the completely useless feeling of hitting bottom as an addict. Mercifully, I still had the tiniest bit of hope, which ultimately led me to the 12-Step program and a lifetime of recovery. That recovery has been an ongoing practice of recognizing my intrinsic worth.
     Without a sense of our own worth, nothing of much good happens. We fall into the rut of "Why bother?" "I can't..." "I'm too ______ (old, stupid, fat, thin, short, tall...)" On and on it goes. Feeling that we don't deserve, we don't get. We don't try.
     Having a sense of one's worth, however, opens up all sorts of vistas, and yes, the opportunity "to have everything." The willingness to go for it is the starting point of all achievement. When we recognize that we are simply one of the whole of humanity, no better and no worse than any other, we can expand and grow and further appreciate the unique individuals we have become.
     Being me and enjoying it,
           Leta