Although my parents did the best they could, I did not often feel loved in my family and home. I grew up believing with everything in my core that I was not enough.
It was a devastating feeling, and it nearly destroyed my life. After a few years in recovery, I started to feel nearly enough, and I wanted more.
Staying in recovery has brought me to a place of deep knowing that I am and always have been enough. Getting here took me learning how to let love in.
It also took understanding that I was loved as a child; it just wasn't expressed in ways that I could see or feel. I'm able to feel my enough-ness now in large part because of the love that I have received from my dearest friends and mentors in recovery, and others who have loved my grown-up self.
We are all born enough, but it gets stripped away when we let others determine our worth. What I hope we all see in our recovery is that we can reclaim it.