This morning I woke up thinking “I love this life of mine”… I felt content and a wee bit gleeful, to be honest. Yet I find it hard to write about that joy. As if I need to clutch it close to my heart like a beautiful secret that might slip away if I speak it out loud, or be stolen away if I share it too broadly. As I sit with that, I realize that I also worry that if I share my happiness, I might upset someone who isn’t feeling as happy. Why do we do that to ourselves, I wonder? Treat our happiness, our joy, our successes as something to apologize for? It’s time to stop brushing off the compliments. Time to stop downplaying our accomplishments. Time to stop apologizing for loving ourselves and our lives. Embracing the brightness of our lives does not mean we deny the hardship of others or the existence of pain and injustice in the world. Rather, it fuels the fire within that allows us to speak up and speak out against injustice, and to show up most fully in community with others. Each tiny moment of brightness and joy feeds us when the world is hard, and we can lend that brightness to others when they have lost touch with theirs, if only we are bold enough to share it.
So let your light shine bright. Accept the compliments with grace. Share your success stories. Spread your joy through your smiles, your touch, your actions. You are allowed to be happy. You are allowed to be joyful. You are allowed to be at peace. You are allowed to be successful. Without shame, without guilt. Without diminishing it. You are allowed.
