Dear You,

There is nothing much for me to share today, I am simply here to say I hope you are well. You who is reading this right now, I hope love and light is filling every bit of your life – if it isn’t, I hope that in time it will. I hope that you remind yourself daily that you are still blooming; even in the confines of your own mind, you are blooming. If a rose can grow from concrete, I know that you will flourish so beautifully despite the situation(s) you feel trapped in right now.

In Japanese culture, there is a restorative art called kintsugi where broken pottery is repaired by mending the breaks with a lacquer mixed with either powdered gold, silver, or platinum – in short, the restorative process increases the value of the object. I hope that like this process, the broken parts of you will be healed with something so much better than what you could ever have imagined. I hope that you’ll look back at this process with fondness, no matter how hard it seems today. I hope that you’ll be able to see how your value is truly immeasurable because it increases by the day. I have so many hopes for you, but the most important one is that I hope you simply enjoy being alive today, tomorrow, and for all the days of your life.

I say to you today what I wish I would have said to myself a very long time ago:

My love, you have mastered the art of survival. But now it's time for you to live. 

Don’t let the fear or guilt of feeling happy stop you from feeling it anyway. That is the worst thing you could do to yourself. Stop convincing yourself to settle where you know your needs are not being met, nor where you know you cannot or will not flourish. Even birds flee when they fear they will get stuck, so why are you forcing yourself to stay where there is no room to breathe? You deserve to take up space, and you deserve to live a life that honours you as a person.

You, exactly as you are, are an incredible work of art. With life breathed into you from the Lord above and a shape that has been designed in the best of ways, you came into this world with a life to live. You came to love and be loved. You came to save the world, even if that’s just by saving yourself. You came to do so much more than just get by. You, incredible you, came to live a life that is full of love and light, and everything that is good. Don’t convince yourself to stay busy so life will just pass you by – just as the world has a right to take it easy on you, you have a responsibility upon yourself to live.

My love, I’ll end this here now. I hope my words will find a small space in your heart today and you will be able to take something from it – if not, I hope they’ll stay with you for a better day. I am so grateful for your existence and I hope you’ll honour this gratitude by letting yourself breathe. May our paths continue to cross with each others for as long as we are good for each other.

Warmest,
Ayesha K.