This is a reading from Days of Healing, Days of Joy for Sept.23,

Today, we are just who we are - no more, no less. That's not a bad place to be. It's not a depressing thing to realize or an unbearable thing to accept. All the comparing we used to do ws really much more paiinful: Do they dress better, own a bigger house, make more money? Do their spouses remember their birthdays? Do their kids get better grades? Do they have more friends?

We never won at the comparing game. We always put ourselves down for not having enough or being enough - whether we knew the facts about the others or not. We assumed, by compariing their outsides with our insides, that they were doing better. Before we started to recover, we were absolutely unable to give ourselves a break.

Isn't it a relief to let that go? Doesn't it feel good to accept ourselves as we are--not as we're afraid we are and not as we wish we were? Isn't it great to watch the world twirl - and not have to go along for the ride?
_________________________________________________

Today, I withdraw from the competition. I enjoy my life and the directions I've chosen.