Best, enough
As childless people, we often feel, and are made to feel, second best.
It is very hard when someone does this to us.
It is possibly even harder when we do this to ourselves.
I remember sitting in a smart London hotel in 2013 having afternoon tea with a group of my friends, all childless not by choice (CNBC). At the next table, a baby shower was taking place.
It was hard not to compare myself to the mother to be, and find myself lacking and it took the edge off the experience for me, even though it was something I had been looking forward to for a long time. It was hard not to feel that real life was going on somewhere else, and my life was just happening at the edges, not enough as it was, deficient, lacking and that somehow, so was I.
But something has happened to me since then. My life has expanded and grown, along with my acceptance and self compassion, and I now acknowledge that I am best, not second best and my life is enough, is more than enough. I will never consent to being made to feel second best again, and I will never do that to myself either.
I am living a big life, and it is my best life, and there is nothing I can do to make it, or myself better.
If I can help you to find or create your best life then do