Full of Awesome

(originally posted on The EdibleTorah)

I was inspired this morning by a post over on Redefine Girly. (“Waking Up Full of Awesome“). It reads (in part):

There was a time when you were five years old,

and you woke up full of awesome.

You knew you were awesome.

You loved yourself.

You thought you were beautiful,

even with missing teeth and messy hair and mismatched socks inside your grubby sneakers.

You loved your body, and the things it could do.

You thought you were strong.

You knew you were smart.

Do you still have it?

The awesome.

Did someone take it from you?

Did you let them?

Did you hand it over, because someone told you weren’t beautiful enough, thin enough, smart enough, good enough?

Why the hell would you listen to them?

Did you consider they might be full of shit?

Here in the month of Elul, we stand before true awesomeness – God – and try to honestly assess our work this past year. We ask forgiveness for the times we fell short of the best person we could be.

But do we also celebrate those moments when we measured up? Made in the image of our Awesome Creator, do we take a minute to say “Hey, I was awesome too! Thanks for giving me the ability and the opportunity to be ‘all that’. I totally rocked that time. I hope you are proud of me, because I am!”

We probably don’t. Because it’s not politically correct. Because we’re taught not to blow our own horn. Because we are told to be humble.

I think we need to rethink that. I’ll write more on that tomorrow.

But for today, I’ve got an assignment:

1. Go back to bed. Not really. Just GET back in bed.
2. Spend 5 uninterrupted minutes remembering times you were awesome this year.
3. Get out of bed.
4. Take another full minute to thank God for giving you those chances to be awesome, and for giving you the ability to take hold of those moments and be your best self in them
5. Carry around that feeling – of self worth and gratitude – for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow, and for the rest of the month of Elul, you have the same homework. It’s OK to copy from yesterday’s homework.

Because that’s how Awesome works.