Once upon a time, there was a baby girl born with a hole in her chest over her heart. As she grew up, the love of her family and friends taught her how to hide the hole, but they could not teach her how to heal it.
She covered the hole from those she didn't know, but she trusted some enough to show them. Once they knew about the hole, she thought they would avoid it and she would be unharmed. But she was wrong. Often they did not realise that they had hurt her, but some knew just how to avoid the flimsy coverings and reach in to stab her heart.
Those that knew her best were the most easily able to hurt her, but often the least aware, as it became just a part of her. She grew up expecting to be hurt by those who she trusted, knowing they didn't mean to, that they still loved her. But the fear grew and grew.
She left her home to join the 'real world' and found that it was harder and harder to protect herself. The hole grew as she did, making it bigger and easier to get through, and even the scar tissue growing in her heart was not enough to protect her. These people did not care whether they hurt her. To them she was only a speck, too insignificant to notice.
She started to withdraw, to hunch, and developed armour on the rest of her body to try and protect her. But nothing helped. Finally she fell to her knees and cried out in despair. But noone could help. Noone understood, because their hearts were protected. They could not help her, though many of them tried.
She lay crushed and defeated on the ground until the Universe took pity on her and offered her a hand in the crowd. She did not understand at first, but slowly she realised that she did not have to do it alone, in fact, could not do it on her own. She realised that there was a way to heal the hole in her heart, if only she could trust in the Universe.
It was a slow and laborious process, and by this stage, each fresh injury to her heart brought her back to the floor, but she kept at it, trusting that one day, she would be strong enough to stand on her own.
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Today is the day I accept the truths about myself that I have always dismissed as overly dramatic and self-serving. Just because something seems to be made-up didn't mean it's not true.
I am different, I am flawed and I have been broken, again and again. But none of that detracts from my value. It allows me to understand others who have been through similar things, allows me to grow and soar through the ups and downs. Sometimes the drops and the backward swoops are what keep you moving forward. (Like an albatross crossing the sea.)
I have been healed, one way or another, through my friends and family, through the higher power that guards and protects me. Sometimes my stories and my idle imaginings have more truth to them than I've ever realised. But they are in my past, and they may have shaped who I am, but I can choose whether they shape my future.
Today is the day that I accept myself as more than broken. Today I accept that I have a gift to give the world, and to myself. I give myself permission to admit that I have a gift that noone else does, one that sets me apart. It is not an easy road to travel. My talents have withered along with my self-confidence, but I choose to set aside my armour and face my fears head-on.
I give myself permission to love myself, for all that I have been, for all that I am, and for all that I could be. My future will come, regardless of the choices I make, and only the Universe knows what will be. I march into the unknown with love in my heart. Forgiveness is my sword, and courage my shield, but love is what will end the war.
I believe in myself. I have faith in me. I approve of myself and the person that I have been, am and will be. I love who I am, regardless of my flaws. I love myself enough to accept the fact that I am flawed and broken. I am not perfect, and that is perfect for me.
I give my fears, my shame, anger, pride, selfishness, greed, arrogance, inferiority, laziness, judgement, and my dishonesty to the Universe.
I choose to live in love, accepting that my life is in the hands of a power bigger than me.
I accept the peace that is freely offered, and place my trust in something that I can neither prove nor understand.
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