I don't mind admitting that I have had two lots of professional counselling in my life, one lot after a difficult appointment scarred me, and another after my marriage ended. Both helped me to believe in myself again.
I had my hair cut, well, um, shaved off yesterday, as the girl went mad with the razor. I look ridiculous! I hate having my hair so short. But it would be easy to think my hair (or lack of it) is all that makes me me, what is wrong with me.
I meet a lot of people with little self-esteem, often through lack of money or having been poohed on by society, others labelled as being different because of sexual orientation or marital status or race, and even sometimes Christian denomination. I met a friend today weighed down with being there for her husband and her children, stressed by Christmas, and thinking of things she wants to do in retirement when she says she will have time - 19 years away at least. I wanted to ask how she values herself now and loves herself now.
It seems to me the Christmas narrative is a lot about building people up: people on the scrapheap of society, labelled, outside, are told you know what you are loved. Can you remember the first time you were told "I love you" by someone? Some of us know what it feels like to be told "I don't love you anymore" and that is hard. We need to find love from somewhere. We hold onto people who value us for being us and who build us up. Shepherds above Bethlehem heard that, Mary, accepted by Joseph heard that, the infant Jesus, looked after and cradled and nurtured even as a refugee, heard that.
So, I look ridiculous today but I am still me and there are other bits of me that are okay!
Friday is New Statesman day, good leftie that I am (!) There is an article today about Leicester City FC and Jamie Vardy. The article has this sentence: "The person who wakes you up is yourself."
If we believe in ourselves a bit more maybe we could do more. If we believed in other people in the world maybe we would respect life more. If we remembered we were all made in the image of God, what difference would that make?
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