A Gentle Reminder

Chapter 3 Listen to the part of yourself that ~

Listen to the part of yourself that knows there's more out there for you .

The kindest people are not born that way, they are made.

They are the souls that have experienced so much at the hands of life, they are the ones who have dug themselves out of the dark, who have fought to turn every loss into a lesson.

The kindest people do not just exist, they choose to soften where circumstance has tried to harden them, and they choose to believe in goodness, because they have seen firsthand why compassion is so necessary.

They have seen firsthand why tenderness is so important in this world.

You deserve to be loved the way you love others.

You deserve to feel seen.

You deserve to sleep beside someone who does not try to quiet your heartbeat, or your passion, or the way you show up in this world.

You deserve to be with the kind of person who loves all of your twists and does not try to untie them.

You deserve to love someone who does not judge you for the ways in which you had to kill your sadness, someone who does not hold your past against you.

You deserve to be chosen and to never be loved in halves.

You deserve someone who is sure of you; you deserve someone who stays.

However, you also deserve to be this person for yourself.

For your capacity to be alone, your capacity to be your own home, your own foundation, is going to directly reflect the way you love these human beings when they come into your life.

When you know yourself, when you stand up for your heart, you do not bankrupt who you are just to keep half-loves in your life.

Love becomes less about filling a void, love becomes less about possession, less about dependence, and it transforms into something that can be fully and deeply appreciated and felt, because you are not afraid that its loss will destroy you.

You are not afraid of being without it, because you know that you will always have yourself.