I choose – today – to accept me as I am. Remaining open, of course, to who I may be tomorrow and remembering with grace who I may have been yesterday.

In an almost pensive anticipation, I look forward to meeting myself today exactly where I am – flaws, and fears, and feelings, and all. An anticipatory self-acceptance I don’t always – or even often – feel.

Hello! How are you? I greet myself in the morning mirror, pausing long enough to thoughtfully, mindfully, consider my answer.

Oh gosh . . . I think, I’m afraid. Afraid of so many things. But the future, mostly, I guess.. Yes, the future.

For him. For them. For us. For me.

For all of us, actually.

And as much as I want to push this fear away, a promise is a promise, so feeling how I feel is how I must feel.

There is a reckoning of sorts, allowing myself to be who I am. A piper who demands payment for the inner voice I’ve not listened to lately, all the regrets, the procrastinations, and now, the pretense of living each day as I always have – – despite my very real belief that so much I thought I knew is falling apart.

Still and all, who I am today is a woman who loves fiercely, lives a little tentatively, and worries endlessly. Today, accepting me as I am must include all of the above and probably more.

Some prayer. Some faith. Some courage. Some hope.