The pain, the constant search for acceptance and love in the eyes and behavior of others, still haunts us. But those days are past. We are daring to be ourselves, one day at a time. ~  Karen Casey. Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women (Kindle Locations 207-209). Hazelden Publishing.

When our self-esteem yields
the right to analyze, to assess ourself
to those around us…and, in doing so
choose to spend our lives with those
whose analysis falls nearest to the baseness
we self-assign, we end up haunted,
believing ourselves morally bankrupt.
But all things can change…even self-appraisal.
That happens sometimes quickly,
sometimes after a while,
as we learn to be ourselves
one day at a time.