Ted knows someone who won’t look at his own picture because he doesn’t like the way he looks.

Susan knows someone who doesn’t go to her son’s soccer games because she’s afraid her son might ask her to run around before the games in front of other people.

Wilma knows someone who cringes every time someone uses the word ‘heavy’ in polite conversation.

Frank knows someone who uses the phrase “I have given up on myself.”

Joey knows someone who comes home after going out to eat and eats a second, much larger dinner–the “real” dinner.

I know someone who has real trouble with the sound of his own voice.

And yet, when we look in the mirror…these are the people we know.

We wouldn’t hesitate to help friends or family move beyond doubt and pain.  Most of us would move heaven and earth to help someone we loved out of a rut.

Let that movement begin in the mirror.  Whatever accommodations we’ve made, whatever compromises we’ve hatched, whatever feelings we’ve pushed to the bottom, let us be open to the possibility that we can do better, that we can be better.  That it doesn’t have to be this way.  And let us understand the beauty of treating ourselves with direct, deliberate kindness and care.  What we would do for others, let us do for ourselves.