With Yourself

…you’ve got to go home with yourself. ~ Julia Roberts

Perhaps you came into these rooms
hating yourself, outside-in.
Perhaps…probably…you learned
the real issue, chronologically,
started with your insides and moved out.
But you do have to go home with yourself,
and/or to go to school, work,
social events,  organizations,
everywhere! with yourself.
But you never need hate yourself again.
Do what you can and should to clean up
the wreckage of your past,
and learn to love yourself,
to respect who you are, to act
as you want to be known
by yourself, other people,
and your God, and be
who you can love, who you respect,
who you choose to be
and accept the respect you deserve
because you deserve it,
all the while knowing it to be appropriate.