I Hope You Stay

Life is remembering to say please and thank you, watching sunsets when you need space to think, it’s catching your breath after laughing until your sides ache, it’s forgiving yourself when relationships break. It’s returning the things you borrow and counting blessings, it’s keeping promises and following your feet, it’s dancing in the rain and pulling your hood up in the sleet. It’s never expecting life to be fair, taking chances, being there when people need you. It’s dreaming big and living small moments, it’s holding hands in the cinema and drinking wine in a courtyard under fairy

You are more than the lines on your body, your shape, your skin.

You are the start of day, when life begins.

Your passions are the things that make you who you are. The spark in your eye when you speak of your passions should be what someone loves most about you. Never let anyone tell you that your hopes and dreams don’t matter.

There are women who gently whisper, You have lipstick on your teeth, or smooth over a hair out of place. There are women who check that your dress looks perfect from behind and never let you leave the bathroom stall with toilet paper on your heel. These are women here for other women. We should be here for each other.

You don’t need to drink to feel confident You don’t need to do drugs to dream

You can be high on yourself

If they make you feel like your body, your heart, and your soul are not worthy of love, then they are not worthy to be loved by you.

There will come a day when they will no longer be your first thought in the morning or keep you up at night. But while they are, you mustn’t be so hard on yourself or rush to heal the wounds. Our hearts live on with scars that run deep. Scars are never neat, but you don’t have to force them to close if you are not ready.

What is the use in looking happy when inside you are hurting.

People may tell you to hide, pretend, and fake it until you make it.

But when you are as happy on the outside as much as you are on the inside, then you’ve really made it.

Self-care is messy. It is sometimes easy and other times difficult.

But it’s about continuation. Continue to look after yourself.

And sometimes

it’s watching the same episode

over and over again

because it makes her feel better

I am not going to be or act a certain way for anyone. I am who I am, and I am going to embrace it. Not everyone will like me, but the most important thing is that I love me, all my parts, working together, all that makes me whole.

She knows love isn’t always taking photos kissing on kitchen countertops, or roses when she’s feeling down. It’s arguing over things that seem unnecessary but eventually coming back around.

You are a fresh brew of tea, a sun-filled day in the middle of winter, a stitch to mend a break, life is not over just because you make mistakes

Of course, there are different kinds of love. There is infatuation and physical and emotional love. There’s respect and comfort love. There’s the kind of love you ignore, the kind you can’t stop thinking about, the kind you make work, the kind that seems impossible. But the love of your life embodies all love. That kind of love is all-consuming, emotional, physical, comforting. It doesn’t matter how many times you say “I love you,” at the end of the day, you know they will stay. True love doesn’t run away.

You can say anything you want But showing is different

You keep her by showing how much you love her

Write in journals the things you are grateful for, make time for an old friend, walk in the mornings as the sun is rising, spend less time focusing on your faults, spend even less time reading rants on social media, plant flowers, check the mailbox, cook a new recipe, dance in your living room. Be in love with living.

I love the way you make me feel. Like I am more than an afterthought, or a second guess, or a maybe. You make me feel like I am your first thought, only choice, a certainty.