That someone is you.

Of course you are faithful during the good times, I know that. It's in the dark times when you need to show support; and these are the times you are most apt to take off running, labelling yourself a muddler or a goofball or worse.

This abandonment in crisis is a mistake; it's precisely when situations have hard rocks inside them that your best efforts are needed. Now is the time you need to remind yourself of your infinite capacities and hidden colors. Now is the time to believe in yourself and what you can see, what you can do, what you can know. If at some moment you are competely caught up in self-dislike, you may have to borrow a friend to remind yourself of your value. Do it. That's what friends are for.

Next week, you can return the favor.

This is a generous university in which we are enrolled; mistakes are allowed. You are even allowed to flunk courses, we all do. What happens, very simply, is that you take those courses over again, this time watching out for the potholes. Eventually you pass; we all do.

In the meantime, be kindhearted about your frailties and failures and stumblings. We're all like children in one respect; we respond more to kindness than to abrasion. When you drop a brick on your own feet, say ouch and learn to smile about it. Or at least grin a little.

The reason it pays to remain loyal to your self is that your self is dazzling. No matter what things look like at 3 am in the morning, there is much, much more to you than your history and your container; more than you can see, more than you can even guess about.

The human beings who inspire us, who make us remember them from one century to the next, are invariably the ones who treated themselves gently. They are the ones who caught hold of their inner spirit and let it swing them into giant arcs of movement, imagination and faith. By remaining loyal to their inner Self they give that Self the power to take them for a wild and riveting ride.

We don't remember the ones who ignored their Self and spent their time muttering.

So on the day when rain jumps out of the sky and splatterspoils your day and you slip into a funk; be loyal.

You're worth it.