Maybe this time you take the cake?

Poetry Oracle: Week of July 29th

Welcome back to the Self Love Confidential Poetry Oracle, where the universe sends you the message you need to hear right now by way of a poem from one of my books.

If you’re addicted to putting everyone else’s needs ahead of your own, this week’s Oracle is for you.

A bonus poem from the Urban Outfitters edition of Self Love Poetry: for Thinkers & Feelers, get your copy here.

“Why eat the crumbs, when you’re the one who baked the cake?”

That’s the question the universe (by way of this newsletter) is asking you today. Why are you always the last one to eat? To rest? To indulge? Why is everyone else’s pleasure automatically a priority overs? I ask these questions because I too lack the answers. Sometimes I think it is my inheritance, since I come from a long line of self-sacrificing women. Other times I think it is our culture, which demands that women be in every sphere of life, and win in every sphere of life, all at the same time (spoiler alert: it’s impossible). With the cake analogy specifically, I wonder if it’s because of our collective obsession with being thin… an obsession I am hardly immune to. We certainly aren’t eating the cake. Do we even dare to eat the crumbs?

Wherever you find yourself in this moment, ask yourself this: are you reaping the fruits of your own labor? Are you putting yourself first, in any sphere of your life? Are you eating the damn cake?

If not, please know that it is never too late to choose yourself, to love yourself first, to enjoy your one precious life. As Mary Oliver said, “Joy is not made to be a crumb.”