To love one's self is the greatest gift of all...

That statement may seem self serving, and in the right light, maybe even self defeating, "To love one's self is the greatest gift of all." Yet it touches on the biggest truth, if we don't love ourselves, value our worth, and take full responsibility for our happiness, then we can never move into a role of support for anyone else. In my 30 years on this planet I've learned a lot of different things from many different people. I'd like to say that every time I learned from my mistakes and never made the same ones again, but that would be a great fallacy. I'd like to say that I know my mind and love myself at all times, but I know that this is also not true. I'm just another person trying to make their way in this cold world. Every time I attach myself to an idea or a concept of who I think I am I get a gentle reminder that, like the oceans tide, I am constantly changing. I often boast that I do love myself and that I know who I am, and then something or someone will come into my life and shake me to my core, and I almost instinctively retreat back into familiar habits. I've been guilty of allowing someone else's action determine my happiness and my worth. I've even bent into things that go against many of the ideals I've held as absolute truth. In short, I've done what I said I would never do. So when someone tells me that "I'll never become an addict" or "I would NEVER do that" or any a laundry list of wouldn'ts, I just smile and say, "Well let's hope not!" Because you can talk all you want about what you would do in any situation, unless you actually face the fire and don't get burned, it's all speculation and about as useless as, well, tits on a whore. We've all had trials in life and all have things that we are getting past, yet, on the whole, most of my friends and especially myself, have lived pretty privileged lives. We don't know the devastating face of war in our backyard; we have never really faced hunger or lack of clean water or gone without shelter. It seems that the comfort of privilege has made us lose sight of what is most important and essential to live a truly fulfilled and purposeful life. That is to love yourself! That will open you up to realize that enemies, friends, family, and strangers are a part of you. You don't necessarily have to agree with the choices people make, but you don't have to chastise them for making them. When you love yourself you become happy with the life you life and you no longer compare your experiences to the life's that others live. You become more happy for the success of others and can share in the joy of their accomplishments, rather then wishing it was you who was having them. In short: LOVE!