Self Compassion

We gladly lend a compassionate hand

to victims of

illness, floods, heat, fire,

and other calamities.

Would we extend

the same soothing understanding

to ourselves?

Compassion means

“to suffer with.”

Yet we often suffer in silence and alone,

plagued by

our floods of self-doubt

that wash away our worth,

the fires of self-hatred

that leave our soul barren.

Listen!

It’s not “Love your neighbor”

better than yourself!

Listen!

for a calm voice

that says, always,

you are loved.