A Promise for Emily
Here’s a speech I wrote for my niece’s recent konfirmasjon. Beautiful day. Inspiring girl.
I promise you are never alone.
Wherever you go, Love is already there. Find it. Your one and only job in this life, no matter what else it is you are tasked with, is to find Love.
Start with the easy places. Like friendship and fun and beauty. Art and nature. Love is in wonder and adventure and discovery. Projects and plans that fall right into place. That’s Love. The perfect idea that comes out of thin air at exactly the right time - that’s Love.
Love is in waking up every morning for 20 years and talking to your sister. No matter where you are. Or where she is.
Love is in difficult places, too. Like sadness and loneliness and frustration. Love is there. Love is that little tug in your heart that gives you courage and inspiration. Love is what shows you how to move forward. Listen for it.
Love is with all the things you think you want but don’t get. Your frenemies. The job you might not get. The party you weren’t invited to. All that rejection is Love pointing you in a new direction. Be grateful through those disappointments; you’re about to discover that Love has something even better in store for you.
Love turns your hurt into compassion. Love turns your biggest mistakes into groundwork for grace. Love turns your darkness into poetry. And once it’s done that, you’ll see there’s nothing left to fear.
Life isn’t meant to be easy. But it is wonderful. It is filled with joy and creativity and spontaneity, and great big moments drawn with teeny tiny details. All of those details are brighter and fuller when you see they’re filled with Love.
I tell my girls all the time that our hearts are connected by a string. And nothing can ever break this string, no matter what we do or where we go or how far away we are from each other. This string keeps us together. This string, of course, is Love. It connects us to you too. We are Love’s gift to each other.
So, you see, you can never be alone. Go into the world with confidence and excitement. You have all of us with you. You have yourself. You have all the marvelous people who haven’t even come into your life yet.
You have Love.
Love is already with you, helping you to discover it — every step of the way.