the role of critique

What is the role of critique 

Is it to see how sharp your edges still are?
To feel the weight of compassion, even if far? 
Is it to hold yourself tighter when you get through the bump 
To love yourself more when you are done with the dump?

Is critique : 

a mechanism 
an energy 
self-sabotage in acceptable form

OR … all the above? 

And my questions for us all:

How much life do we stifle?
How much creativity do we miss?
How much JOY do we repel

when we give oxygen to the form of critique? 

Grandfather Cacti reminding me that every edge has a role in shaping the vessel that is who I am.

Despite what the world might say, I am NOT what I seem from the outside - in .
It is all just too beautiful, complex, & magical to be black and white, this or that, wrong or right.

Photos on the beach at a mermaid pool found in Playa de Tule in Cabo San Lucas, Baja Mexico.
Photos of grandfather Cacti found on the way to the El Chorro Hot Springs.