LOW SELF ESTEEM OR BOASTING?

A month or so ago, I attended a meeting way down here in Mayberry. It was at the clubhouse. There were probably twenty five women in attendance. Since everyone didn't know one another, the host said for each woman to introduce themselves and then say ONE COOL THING ABOUT YOURSELF.

I was first. In my mind I'm thinking.....how much time do you have? I have lots of things about myself I find pretty cool. So I picked one short thing that I thought people may have not known about me. I wasn't trying to boast. Really........

Well as the other twenty four women started introducing themselves, it was apparent that few wanted to say anything cool about themselves or just really thought there was nothing cool about them. A typical introduction would go like this:

"Hi. My name is Sally So-n-So. We moved in about six months ago. We live in the green stucco house on Mayberry Street. Um.....and the one cool thing about me is.........um.........I have two really cool children."

Huh?

In my head I was making a mental count of who I DIDN'T want to get to know better. Did these women really have low self-esteem or did they just not want to boast? Were their entire lives so focused on raising children or having a career that they couldn't think of something they really liked about themselves?

Thank goodness my Analyzer friend spoke up about her coolness. She's a fairly confident and opinionated woman. She also has a lot of really cool things about herself so it may have been easier for her to come up with something than maybe others.

It makes me think about being a stay-at-home Mom. It really is the hardest job on earth. I 'm so grateful to have this opportunity, but it is really easy to lose yourself. It is so simple to just engross your time and energy in your children/husband and forget the person YOU are. The essence of why your husband fell in love with you. The reason why you are on this earth.

I believe that there are no accidents/coincidences. I believe that everything happens for a reason. I believe I wasn't there that night at the Mayberry meeting to look through a catalog and buy the latest whatever in stationary and photo albums. I believe I was there to get something out of the introductions. It helped remind me how we as women get lost in our lives and it helped me remember to connect with myself FIRST.

My plea to other Mom's: Re-connect with your being. Find interests and stick with them. Make time for you. Keep the "cool" and find a voice.