Welcome,
My friend.
I'm so glad you're here.
I hope you feel no other duty than to arrive in this space exactly as you are.
Not as you wish you would be,
Not as you think you should be,
Not as it feels everyone else around you might be,
But as you are,
Without force,
Without fix.
Here you are not required to melt into a mixture of approachable emotions.
You are not asked to morph your current state into one that's more outwardly pleasing.
You are not asked to speak,
Act,
Do,
Or be a certain way.
How you meet this space right now,
Exactly as you are,
By being nothing but undeniably you,
Is already more than one could ever wish.
Though the harsher and darker edges of worry,
Fear,
Stress,
And sadness may creep in the shadows of your being.
Somewhere,
Very deep down,
You recognize these feelings are not all of you.
The anxiety that knocks sometimes pounds on the doorways to your once undistressed mind is not obligated to stay as a welcomed guest.
Here,
In this moment,
Cradled by this unscathed space,
I would like to give you permission.
I would like to give you permission to let the thoughts that dwell heavy in your mind,
Knotted by self-criticism and constant conviction,
To unravel.
Like pulling the loose thread to an old worn sweater,
I give you permission to cut tethered ends.
I give you permission to weave a thought that fits your spirit a bit truer,
Trying it on for size in this moment moving forward.
Maybe today the new sweater you knit in your mind is as simple as,
I am as I am,
And as I am is enough.
I would like to give you permission to come up for air,
Take a full breath,
In through your nose,
Out through your nose,
Every next one holding you a bit longer than the last.
Allowing this breath to envelope you,
Nourishing every inch of your being,
I would like to give you permission to stay and visit with this long lost friend for as many moments as you'd like,
Knowing that with each inhale in,
On each exhale out,
In these breaths alone,
You are doing enough.
I would like to give you permission to soften.
Your eyelids can travel to a close,
Inviting in the rich gray scale that lives beneath.
Your jaw can unclench,
Allowing your lips to part slightly,
Maybe releasing a gentle sigh of relief with as the grip of unspoken or misspoken words unfastens.
Your shoulders can travel away from your earlobes,
Letting the weight of worries you wear slide off of your back.
These are no longer yours to hold,
No longer yours to carry,
No longer yours to be bogged down by.
I give you full permission to soften into every inch of your being,
Honoring that how you land today is enough.
I give you permission to curl in,
Pull the covers over,
Turn your vacancy sign off,
And then I give you permission to rise once again,
To unbecome and re-become as many times as you need.
In this moment that courage may feel untangible,
But my friend,
I give you permission to look at your track record.
You have made it through every hardest moment of your life thus far.
You have no reason to mistrust in your abilities now.
You don't mean my permission today,
But to you I will give it,
Over and over and over again I will give it.
Because if you don't believe it quite yet,
I do.
That you,
As you are,
As you feel,
As you land and breathe and be,
Are enough.
You are so love,
You matter.
This world,
My world especially,
Would not be the same without you here.
In tension and in ease and all the many many human things that live between,
I thank you so much for choosing to be here,
And I wish you well dear friend.
