The perpetual scroll is painful for me (any many others) these days. I have all but kicked my habit of mindlessly opening apps to “connect” with friends. I no longer claim social media as a primary news source. So, when something stops me in my tracks – it’s rarely good. It’s rarely so beautiful.
This image profoundly touched the pieces of me that ache with regret. I guess in some ways I have learned this concept before: Tara Brach’s Radical Acceptance, Brene Brown’s The Gift of Imperfections, and The School of Hard Knocks. But, to see it so simply put – so effortlessly stated. I chomped down and savored it: make peace with all the women you once were.
Could it be so simple? To not harp on the past? To not wander aimlessly down memory lane until you’ve selected something to sit in the pit of your stomach? Making peace means you honor their impact as much as their imperfections – you forgive and you won’t forget. You are the sum of these parts -- thus you become better, no, different, no… changed. Evolved.
I shared this image with a friend, who in turn shared with me a quote from Flight Path,
“It was hard to feel the remotest sympathy for any of the different fools she'd been. As opposed to the fool she was being now. People hang on to that one, she thought: the fool they are right now.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees
I was jolted to the idea that not only must I make peace with the women I was, but cognizant of the imperfect version of myself I am at present. If I am harsh to the “fool” I was, someday I will be harsh to the fool I am right now. How can I move forward with acceptance for every iteration, with loving kindness for past, present and future me, with awareness that flaws do not the human make?
By knowing that I have been thousands of different women, and that I will continue to evolve.
Please enjoy Emory Hall’s complete poem, i have been a thousand different women, of which the art was born.
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