{"id":142,"date":"2009-07-22T08:48:12","date_gmt":"2009-07-22T08:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/07\/who-i-am-and-what-i-have-andreas-tattoo-story.html"},"modified":"2009-07-22T08:48:12","modified_gmt":"2009-07-22T08:48:12","slug":"who-i-am-and-what-i-have-andreas-tattoo-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/07\/who-i-am-and-what-i-have-andreas-tattoo-story.html","title":{"rendered":"Who I Am and What I Have: Andrea’s Tattoo Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love it when great posts lead to equally great comments. Here’s another tattoo story written in response to Diane’s “Beautiful Tattoo” post<\/a> yesterday…<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Who I Am and What I Have: Andrea’s Tattoo Story<\/span><\/div>\n
I also have a tattoo but mine is not to remind me that I’m luminous and beautiful. Instead, it reminds me to never raise my hand in anger. That is because I accidently gave it to myself when I went to slam my hand on a desk in anger and accidently stabbed myself with a calligraphy pen that had to be removed by the emergency room doctor. The ink is all that remains 30 years later!<\/span><\/div>\n

\nFirst of all, by today’s standards I’m NOT beautiful, nor pretty, nor thin, nor young, nor any of a myriad of things that are considered important by many people. Rather than focus on all the things I AM NOT, I try to focus on the things I am.
\nI AM a kind, generous, loyal, honest woman.
\nI AM a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend.
\nI AM compassionate.
\nI AM determined.
\nI AM very forgiving.
\nI AM courageous when it’s needed.
\nI AM lucky enough to have more food than I need.
\nI AM lucky to still have all of my limbs, my hearing, my eyesight, my sense of taste and smell.
\nI AM fortunate to have not lost any immediate family to death, disease or misfortune.
\nI HAVE a roof over my head and clothes to keep me warm.
\nI HAVE many friends, a few who are extremely close.
\nWhenever I get down on myself I recall that I have friends who have lost all of the above.
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
The most important thing that I’ve learned through challenges and struggles is
\nto UNCONDITIONALLY love myself and others. It’s not easy but it’s what I believe is most important and stands as the root of all religions when you scrape away all the dogma and politics.
\nIf we can all come up with a list of what we ARE instead of what we AREN’T and what we HAVE rather than what we LACK, we would all find ourselves and our lives to be beautiful.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love it when great posts lead to equally great comments. Here’s another tattoo story written in response to Diane’s “Beautiful Tattoo” post yesterday… Who I Am and What I Have: Andrea’s Tattoo Story I also have a tattoo but mine is not to remind me that I’m luminous and beautiful. Instead, it reminds me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-growth"],"yoast_head":"\nWho I Am and What I Have: Andrea's Tattoo Story - Flirting with Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/07\/who-i-am-and-what-i-have-andreas-tattoo-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who I Am and What I Have: Andrea's Tattoo Story - Flirting with Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I love it when great posts lead to equally great comments. 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