Delight and deservingness

You’re worthy right now.

One of my top life values is delight. (Along with trust, intimacy, and hydration on a cellular level). 

For me, delight feels like an innocence that I plan to never abandon. It means that I look for and love the little sweet things that bring joy. Delight is an acknowledgement and celebration of all the good that has been, is now, and will be. It involves believing that you can enjoy what the past has brought you, love what is here right now, and also be open to receiving new and better in the future. Approaching life with a sense of delight and curiosity brings excitement and surprise to everything. I wonder what will happen.

Delight here, now.

It’s hard for me to be appreciated or let myself appreciate the work I’ve done. My inner dialogue tells me I’m supposed to be perfect and figure out every possible outcome and handle everything with ease and grace. It tells me I need to keep working on myself and that there are always things I can be improving.

Which is true. There are always things I can do better and there are always things that aren’t quite right. I love living with growth as my ever-present goal — but this also means that I have an extremely difficult time celebrating what I’ve already grown through. I just wanna be perfect.

It’s easy to look at what isn’t perfect, at what’s wrong, at what you haven’t accomplished yet. It’s easy to fall into the ‘I’ll be happy/ok when…’ mindset. Bullllllshit. You won’t be happy then if you aren’t happy now. Which is not to say that external circumstances don’t have a huge impact on your overall wellbeing, because they do. But if you can’t make space for joy in your daily life and are expecting someone to hand deliver it on a platter once you’ve gotten the job, graduated, found the One, finished the list, or healed that childhood wound — you will never be at peace.

Working through pain, facing conflict, and taking scary-but-worth-it risks are all important. And, it is equally as important to take pleasure from the work you’ve already done. Believing that you deserve to celebrate and savor the beauty of this life right now will bring more internal wellness than any other external accomplishment or goal you have your eyes on. It’s like what Carl Rogers said — “as soon as you accept yourself as you are, then you can change.” If you’re unhappy and want things to change and be better, you have to look at what is good right now. That is how to create more wonder and abundance in our lives. 

If we aren’t enjoying the fruits of the work we do every day, in our own selves, our relationships and jobs — what’s the point? Is work even worth it, if we don’t allow ourselves to delight in what we’ve been tending to?

You are nature.

If you see yourself as part of nature you can understand that you don’t have to do anything to deserve joy. It’s available for you now. You can choose joy right now; it’s not something you have to earn or delay. Love who and where you are right in this moment. Just do it — it’s hard and also so easy. Accepting that you deserve to be held and free and loved is so close to you — let it in. This doesn’t mean we are bypassing the hard & bad — it just means that we value ourselves enough to savor the beautiful & good. Moving through the shadows also includes dwelling in the light.

As Osho (yes, Osho) quotes:

“Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars… and if you have eyes you will be able to see that their whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.”

Whatever you’ve done until now is enough. You’re worthy right now, you have nothing to prove. By merely existing on this earth, you are worthy and deserving of love and peace.

xx, maggie