a letter to unworthiness
Dear Friend,
The unworthiness that you feel is not yours. It is not something you were born with, intertwined with the fabric of who you are, like the color of your eyes, the sound of your voice, or the length of your arms and legs.
No, unworthiness was placed upon your shoulders by an “other.”
By someone who has had a life of pain and decided to let their pain bleed into you.
By a parent who isn’t an adult yet despite being a mother or father, who let their own feelings of unworthiness become yours, who couldn’t let you feel worthy because they can’t, who couldn’t teach you to feel worthy because they don’t know what it looks and feels like themselves.
From a society of perfectionism, a people who are never satisfied with themselves and thus cannot allow you to be satisfied with yourself.
From a stranger who feels envious of your sensed power and believes that power is finite and must attempt to take yours to have some of their own.
From a so-called friend who is only interested in herding a flock of those that are lesser than them in order to feel big.
From a lover who placed the blame of a broken relationship upon what you lacked.
It is simply impossible for you to be unworthy. For you are made of the same atoms that make up those who you deem to be worthy. You cannot be unworthy unless they are unworthy. And yet you grant the “others” this distinction. There is no you and them. There is only us all. And you are one of us, the worthy.
My friend, you are worthy simply because you are. It isn’t to be argued over. And more importantly, you are worthy, not despite, but because of your beautiful imperfections. That you are imperfect is what makes you so worthy of kindness, of love, of softness, of patience, of compassion, of peace, of joy, of a life of purpose, such wonderful purpose.
Do not carry the burden of unworthiness that someone else gave you. It is not yours. Nor is it theirs, but they have yet to figure that out. Since humans were able, we have thrown shame around to make others feel less worthy than they are. It is because we are afraid of our power, of our true potential, and terrified of what may come when we live up to it. We can foresee a world in which we walk in our truth and that power is staggering and so it is terrifying. And because we humans are so, so very young, we cannot fathom that power and so we fear it. And then we are ashamed for fearing essential parts of ourselves, the essential truth that we are limitless if we get out of our own way.
So do not let their fear chip away at your foundations. You were born worthy of the wonderful. You will die worthy of it. And your worthiness, made up of every atom that holds your current form, will be used once more to form another worthy thing. Free yourself from the chase after something which you already have, a status no one else can grant or gift you. You are chasing after what you already are and running from yourself in the process. Stop running and accept the truth.
You are worthy of life. You are worthy of love. You are worthy of you.