I push myself. I know I do and I’m never satisfied. My judge is on board. A lady’s-slipper is enough. A cardinal is enough. As a woman, though, I often feel that I am not enough. I start something and I have to go to the next level of whatever that something is.
Let’s take, for example, my reiki training. I love reiki therapy, which is gentle touch for relaxation and balance of body, mind and spirit. I first learned about reiki from a single paragraph in a chapter of Katrina Kenison’s book, The Magical Journey. I’d been seeking a way to work with my business clients to help relieve their blocked energy, stress and anxiety. When I heard about reiki, I knew it was what I wanted to pursue.
I found a teacher, Libby Barnett, in New Hampshire about three hours’ drive time from my home in Maine. Libby has taught over 2000 students and is a wonderful teacher. The teaching program encompasses several levels: Reiki I, II, III, Master Training and Master of Masters. Earlier this month, after a journey that started in 2014, I achieved the highest level, Master of Masters. This certification allows me to instruct others in how to teach all levels of Reiki. While thrilled to have reached this level of mastery, I do have to ask myself, when is enough, enough?
Why do I need to always push to the next level? Why can’t I be satisfied with just being, exactly as I am in the present? Don’t get me wrong, there are, of course, times when pushing oneself is appropriate and required for personal and professional growth and achievement. But equally important is one’s ability to see that something is enough just as it exists.
I live on a lake with daily opportunities to explore the natural world around me. In nature imperfections abound. Yet, just as they are, a lady’s-slipper is enough; a cardinal is enough. Why hold myself to a standard of perfection Mother Nature herself can’t attain? So maybe, just maybe, we are enough, you and I, just as we are.
