Dear Self: Please remember that it is your wounds that taught you to see beyond yourself: That all you have become is because of all you went through: That your scars, besides being beautiful and perfect in themselves, are just maps charting the course of your healing: You are here: You are doing the work that you’re doing: You are loving in the way that you love: *Because* of what it has taken you to be able to: Your compassion: Your skill: Your power: All have come from where you were hurt first: And how you heal/ed. _ Dear Self: I know it’s easy to forget: Easy to blame: Easy to shake a fist at suffering: Easy to hide behind it: Easy to let it overwhelm, override, or overcome you: And I know how strongly you feel: How strongly you sense the pain of those around you: How heavily the weight of the world can hang on you: How sometimes all you can see are all the wounds — both “out there” and “in here”: I know, I *know*, love. _ But here we are! Scars and all, and still standing! Still healing, and growing, and becoming: Still all finding our beauty: Still all finding our ways back to our most whole, most potent, and most magnificent selves! _ Give blessings, give love, and give space, for all that has ever threatened to take you under, and instead, has lifted you up: Give honour to all that has broken you down or broken you open in order to break you free: Give thanks for all your holes, dear Self, and for all the light they let pass through you: You are more than your wounds, of course, but you wouldn’t be without them. 💛 💛 💛 For all my fellow selves out there working with and through our “stuff”. I love you. Keep going! 💛 Image in B&W in solidarity with all of you going grey-scale with your phone screens 😉 _ #healingoldwounds #integratinghealing #ourscarsareourstrength