It's time to take your
love back from
those
who
hurt you; from those who never understood how to protect someone
who cared as deeply as you did. It’s time to take those
pieces, the shards of heart and hope, from the hands of those who
do not deserve to hold them any longer. It is time to believe
that you are worthy of being whole again; that you are worthy of
knitting yourself back together, day by day, fragment by
fragment.
It is time to understand that you never had any say in how long
someone stayed; you never had any say in how long someone loved
you. There was nothing you could have done to stop them from
walking away. Whether you silenced the thud of your heart against
your ribcage, whether you spoke in a softer tone or made yourself
fit into their lives like a square peg in a round hole, you never
had any say in how long they were going to appreciate you. How
long they were going to try.
However, you do have a say in how you rise; in how you pick
yourself up from the debris of it all. You do have control over
how you grow, how you build yourself from a foundation of ash and
flame, from charred pieces of past and weathered old names.
So take it slowly. Start by taking back your favorite songs, the
ones that always made you cry when they left. Take back your
favorite coffee shop, the one you always went to together. Take
back your favorite sweater, the one that always smelled like
them. Then, calmly, take back your quiet — the thoughts you
have when you are asleep, the conversations you share with the
moon. Take back your beauty, the confidence that was once built
on the bedrock of their approval. Take back your heart, no matter
how battered and bruised it is, no matter how much it hurts.
I promise you will bloom again. I promise you will flourish.
Trust me when I say that wildflowers grow in the oddest of
places, between the cracks of memories, they gather strength
within scar tissue, stretching toward the light, saying “We
deserve to be here, no matter where we have come from.” Now
it’s your turn.