I am naturally optimistic.
I see the good in everyone and everything.
I have been like this since I was a child.
It actively angered those around me. They couldn’t understand my joy and the purity of my belief, so they tried to stamp it out of me. I took on that burden for a long, long time.
I have been told more times than I can count that I am naive, misguided, or that I live outside of reality.
That I need to “grow up”, “join the real world”, or “understand how things really work.”
These words used to bother me, but I also knew that they weren’t true. I understood that those who said these things to me didn’t see things the way I do.
How could they understand if they did not see from my perspective? Of course they couldn’t. I didn’t take it personally.
After a series of exceptionally challenging events in my early twenties, I started to take this to heart. “What if they’re right?!” I thought. I felt ashamed and foolish to have ever believed in the world the way I did.
I finally listened to their advice. I tried to grow up, to stop living in a “fantasy”, to do things the “right” way that “all” adults agreed upon.
This led me into the most miserable phase of my entire life.
From age 22-28, I tried to play the game. I gave it my best shot.
I stopped believing in everything I had always known and started listening to those around me.
I did what I was told. I followed their advice.
I tried to be “good.” I tried to do it “right.”
And I was more miserable, more disconnected, more angry, more apathetic, and less MYSELF than ever before.
My spark and zest for life went completely dormant for a while.
At age 28, the most beautiful soul walked into my life and shook me from my slumber.
In a single instant, I remembered what I had always known. I came back to life.
I realized that my perspective is my strength.
Part of my gift is to see the shiny, golden core of someone from the first moment I lay eyes on them.
This does not make me naive. This makes me wise.
A very different kind of wise.
In this world where people see chaos and hatred and hardship — I have always seen the beauty.
It is always the first thing there, staring straight back at me.
Many times, it has come back to bite me.
I have spent a lot of time learning how to integrate the difference between what I see — who people are at the core — and how they show up in their reality.
It is sometimes heartbreaking to witness.
I have learned that many people haven't accessed the true potential they hold within.
Many do not even believe it exists.
But I see it when I see them. Clear and crisp as day.
You see, I am many things.
I am incredibly soft and tender.
I am also resilient and immoveable. My bones can withstand and outlast anything. I am built like that, deep within the core of me.
I am able to be incredibly soft, sensitive, and loving, because of my resilience. Because of my immovability.
I refuse to be shaken, even when the foundations crumble beneath my feet.
I refuse to give up, even when I must claw my way forward on my hands and knees.
This is what I am here for.
I do not know how else to describe it. It is held as a deep knowing within me.
I also hold this awareness. The deep awareness of those around me.
Not their outer, surface-level selves. Not the projections that people love to dive into and hurl at one another.
The true, core essence of them. The piece that is often afraid, and hides from sight. The part they were told was too much, or not quite right. The piece that was always left unheard, misunderstood, or unloved. The part of them that matches up with that part of myself that was left out in the cold in my early life.
This is the part that shines. The same part that holds all the potential, opens every door, and shows you your true path in life. THIS is the piece of everyone that I see. I see the true self. This includes the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful, the presentable and the part that just wants to hide. I see it all, laid out before me, glistening in the light.
And that’s the thing — all of this together is absolutely STUNNING. THIS is what I long to see in everyone. If we could all reach back into ourselves, down to the core, and pour love over all the broken places — that is the way forward.
Healing is wonderful and beautiful. Appreciation and acceptance of exactly how we are NOW is not always talked about.
Appreciating yourself as you are in this moment, with all your flaws, jagged edges, insecurities, and fears — this is what true healing looks like.
This is the place we are diving into in order to emerge brand new.
Brand new not because we have changed. Brand new because we have gained a fresh appreciation for ourselves. Brand new because we realize, maybe for the first time, that nothing is truly wrong with us. That there is nothing to change. We are beautifully flawed and flawless all at once, you and I.
When you see this in yourself, something shifts from the inside. Something is born anew in that moment. Nothing is ever the same from there. Magick ignites.
And so — this is my gift to give to the world. I have been told that I was naive to believe in it. I’ve been called crazy at times. That’s okay. I have moved through the waves. I don’t mind.
But what I’m trying to get at, what I’m truly trying to convey here, is that every single one of you is BEAUTIFUL.
Absolutely beautiful. And I’m talking about the inside. Especially all the pieces you try to hide from view, or that you don’t like.
Every broken, scarred, wounded soul I have ever laid eyes upon is stunningly, astoundingly beautiful.
Not because you are perfect or know how to show up perfectly.
Just because you are.
I would always rather see the truth of you, your authentic complexion, than anything more polished you could present to me.
I am here for the real. The raw. The purest, rarest of intensity.
I am here to see you. To meet you. Exactly as you are.
And to remind you, by seeing through to this inner part, that you are worthy and capable of anything you truly seek to accomplish.
When that drive comes from the depths of your soul, no hurdle is too large to leap in a single bound.
You have all you will ever need within you.
I love you.
I see you.
Thank you.
Please know, in this single moment and every moment that follows, that you have done enough. You are enough. You will always be enough.
You make this world what it is.
You are important and wonderful and powerful.
You are what this life is all about.
You add a profound, unique beauty to the world.
Simply by existing.
Tawny