Letters to myself:
What are you a safe harbor for?
Do you make space for hurt, and then let it stay long enough to become resentment?
Or are you the gatekeeper you never had when you were younger, denying access to any ship that doesn’t come bearing useful and beautiful goods? Like sweetness, light, and comfort? Do you provide portage for hope?
Anger has its brief utility, but do not grant it residence.
Stay soft.
And being soft to the world means there will always be dangerous barbs lurking in trust— but you can only get hung up on a wrong done to you if you put yourself on the hook. Better to be hung up from time to time than to be hardened to the experience of it all.
Forgiveness and gratitude are magic potions.
Either elixir moves most demons back to the darkness from whence they came.
And forgiveness isn’t rolling out red carpets to let yourself be hurt again, because you can always forgive and banish— you are the only person who grants access to your light, your energy, your person. Forgiveness is the release of the need for anything more. It’s not absolution for the other party; it is freedom for you.
Let them go. And thank them for the lesson.
Processing is a process, but don’t make it your life.
Gratitude is a labor undertaken with unparalleled return on investment.
It may be half of the infinite equation of being, while we can experience it.
Joy is incomplete without it, I think.
Lean into these things.
Provide safe harbor for hope.