“And who do you
think you are sauntering along
five feet up in the air, the ocean a blue fire
around your ankles, the sun
on your face on your shoulders its golden mouth whispering
(so it seems) you! you! you!”
— Mary Oliver, “On Thy Wondrous Works I Will Meditate (Psalm 145)”

You Are Amazing
You are a world of amazement — a universe of jaw-dropping, eye-popping, breathless awe. It doesn’t matter what you look like or what you accomplish in this world or who you know or how much you have. You are an original work of art. You are loved. You are accepted. You were created for joy.

I think parents should say this every single day to their children, starting with tiny babies and never letting up through the angst of teen years and beyond. The world is battering. We often feel ashamed, misshapen, misunderstood, and insignificant. For some, these feelings can rise to a crisis point in early years or play out sadly in middle age; they can be cruelly exacerbated by racism and bigotry. There are people who will never accept you as they seek to “put you in your place.” But your place is front and center in the meaning of the universe!

In the spiritual alphabet “Y” is for you because spirituality needs to root itself firmly in the soil of unconditional love and divine inhabitation of you — whoever you are. (click here to read the entire essay)