The choice is always there.
To stay soft.
To stay open.
To stay hopeful.
Or to give up.
To harden our hearts. To give in to the pressure. To conform like the rest. To say the world is a cruel, harsh place. To say all the good ones are taken. To say we were born in the wrong time and place. To say there's no one left for us.
Our proof is right there in our past. In our patterns. In our history.
We can always find evidence to support what we choose to believe.
But what if there's nothing to be gained by staying here, by repeating the old script of our circumstances that we feel powerless to change?
What if the very step of repeating this pattern only serves to be a persistent reminder of how powerless we are so that we only become powerless in the process?
But what if we're not?
What if there could be something to looking beyond our past, to looking beyond what we hold onto so dearly in every cell of our body? What if it could be different tomorrow simply because there is a tomorrow, because there is even a chance to do something different?
I don't know your specific story. I don't know what you've personally been through.
But I do know what so many of you have collectively been through by the telling of your stories and the weaving together of the commonalities within them. I know something unmistakable happens when you're seen, when you're felt, when you're understood, when you're accepted for exactly who you are.
Don't give up just because you haven't found that yet. Don't go back to the old familiar narratives just because no one's ever given you a reason to create new ones.
You have this one life, Beautiful.
Whatever you think will make you happy, probably won't make you as happy as you think it will when you have it. But there is something that might.
Pressing on. Keeping a hopeful heart. Refusing to give up.
Fighting for something bigger than you are. Getting up each day and finding some place to make a difference in this world beyond the daily grind that gives you nothing but more of the same.
Hard isn't better. Cynical isn't better. Closed isn't better. But something better than all of this is the miracle, the beauty, the essence of you.
You, with a choice. You, with a plan. You, with a new resolve, remembering who you were before the world broke your heart. When you were still that girl with a dream.
Be her again. That's who you're meant to be.
Love,
Jane
Do you have a choice to make, Beautiful? I'd love to hear all about it. Share your story with us in the comments below.
Your comments speak to me! Love it:). I lost self esteem and my life savings due to a husband deciding to abandon me. He left without as much as a text or note to live with a dermatologist. Her husband passed away about 3 months prior and he said he was called to put her life back together.
He completely turned his back on me and it has been quite a struggle mentally, emotionally and financially to gain footing on a new life.
Your blog is a blessing! I know need to have many changes and making them slowly but some days are quite frustrating. I am keeping the faith. Want to write a book as believe I can help others.
Thanks for all that you do to help us not feel forgotten and quite alone.
I can only imagine what you've been through, Sandriel. My heart goes out to you. The "callings" of these men never cease to amaze me! What do they think we are?!
Never ever alone. Never ever forgotten. I'm so glad you found your way here and honored that you find the blog a blessing. I find your words a blessing and have no doubt you're going to become everything you never even dreamed of because of what you've been through!