A while ago a dear family member sent me a keyring that said, “I am enough.” And at the time I thought, “Well duh, of course!” And then I thought about how often I might actually let myself feel that, rather than just intellectually understand that.

It’s something I’m working on with mixed success. There is so much to do in the world, and a sense of inadequacy can help getting things done. The humility of knowing that it doesn’t matter if you’re good enough or not, it’s not about being enough, it’s about doing your best in service, knowing you’ll probably fall short.

I guess the difference between helpful inadequacy and not helpful inadequacy is the ego. If you know you’re not enough but you smile and grin and give it your best, well that can be quite nice. But if your ego gets in the way, oof, then inadequacy can become a burden and a disappointment.

So it’s funny, I drew a comic about being enough and now I’m writing to you about the beauty of inadequacy if you can just get your darn ego out of the way.

Which is something I think I needed to do today. I am enough, and part of being enough is knowing I absolutely am not enough, but that that is ok and I can chuckle at my ego and its petulant ways. Poor pet, it does its best, but it does tie itself up in knots.

Liz

I am enough cartoon transcript

The Things are armless, legless, kind entities. They are drawn in blue, which is the color I use for sketching comics. I use black to finish a comic, so this comic is “incomplete” by the normal standards of finishing a comic.

Thing 1 looks up into the air, Thing 2 looks at Thing 1.

Thing 1 looks earnestly at Thing 2. Thing 2 smiles back.

Thing 1 smiles a little tremulously.

Thing 1: I am enough.

Thing 1 and 2 smoosh their heads together with affection.

Thing 2: Always.