Stay Soft

Do not let it harden you.

Do not let their words, their stares, their judgment, their whispers, be bricks to create an impenetrable wall around your heart.

Stay soft. Stay flexible. Stay open. Stay vulnerable.

It will be hard at times. You may feel many stings. You will hesitate to trust again. You may open yourself to others, slowly, and find that they were not safe to share your beautiful heart.

If they have not learned how to be tender with their own delicate vulnerability, they do not deserve to be invited to handle yours. The harshest critics often carry the weight of self-judgment that would make you weep.

Don’t be afraid, dear one. Learn again and again how to handle yourself with care, understanding, curiosity, and love. Replace the shoulds with questions and the shame with self-empathy. You will learn to love yourself through sharp heartache. You will learn how to hold space for yourself.

And when you do, when you learn how to handle your vulnerability with care, when you have stared at the darkest parts of yourself and not looked away, when you have peered into the places you have hidden away parts of your true self, you will know love. You will know yourself. You will know the beauty and brightness and brilliance of everything you are and you will be amazed.

Then, the most astounding thing will happen.

You will find yourself loving others in a profound way. A way that doesn’t demand anything from them. A way that does not carry the energy of neediness. A way that offers and invites and opens.

Stay soft. Soft is the strongest you will ever be.