💌 Part 1: Dear Me, I Forgive You

Sun setting over the silos, still full of so much life with overgrown vegetation

Dear Me,

I’ve written you a thousand times in my head — usually at night, when the world is quiet and the guilt gets loud. You’ve carried so much, haven’t you?

The weight of trying to be everything — the mom, the wife, the friend, the woman who smiles even when she’s unraveling inside.

I remember her — the version of you who hid behind humor and busy schedules. The one who said, “I’m fine” because it was easier than explaining why you weren’t. You were so good at performing strength that no one saw how tired you were of pretending.

I forgive you for that.

I forgive you for the nights you cried in the shower so no one would hear. For the times you begged your reflection to just keep it together a little longer. For putting everyone’s needs above your own and calling it love.

You didn’t fail.

You were surviving in a world that praises exhaustion and calls it devotion.

🕊️ I Forgive You for the Break

For the moment your mind said, “I can’t do this anymore.”

For ending up in that cold, fluorescent hospital room and wondering if you’d ever feel like yourself again.

You thought breaking meant you were weak, but the truth is — that breakdown saved you. It cracked the shell that was never meant to contain you.

You didn’t lose yourself there.

You were being remade.

🌷 I Forgive You for Outgrowing Who You Were

For changing. For confusing people who liked you better when you were quieter, smaller, easier to understand.

You started choosing peace over performance, and not everyone clapped for that — but you did it anyway.

That takes courage.

I forgive you for chasing approval from people who never learned how to love you without conditions. For staying too long where your light was dimmed. For all the “should have known better” moments that still echo when you close your eyes.

You did the best you could with what you knew at the time.

That’s enough.

✨ I Forgive You for Forgetting How Magical You Are

You’ve spent so long focusing on your flaws that you stopped seeing your glow.

But I see her now — the woman with soft strength and wild grace, who still believes in new beginnings.

The one who can find beauty in a mess, laughter in exhaustion, and hope in the smallest miracle.

You were never too much. You were just becoming.

So tonight, I release you.

I release the guilt. The shame. The endless what-ifs.

You no longer owe anyone an apology for being human.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting the pain — it means no longer letting it own you.

You’ve earned your peace.

You’ve earned your stillness.

You’ve earned your beginning again.

With love,

The woman you became because you didn’t give up.

🌸 Takeaway: The Soft Art of Self-Forgiveness

Forgiving yourself is not about erasing the past — it’s about seeing it through gentler eyes.

Every version of you was necessary to build the one reading this today.

When the guilt whispers, remind yourself:

You survived.

You grew.

You became.

And that’s more than enough.