…it’s what I want to say to pretty much everyone who walks through my door. But I don’t, because it doesn’t help if I say it. It’s got to come from somewhere else. There’s a little voice within each of us that knows the truth. I believe we are born perfect. I believe that the little one inside each of us who dances freely is the one who actually knows what it’s all about. It took me until at least 40 to figure this out. To lean in and really learn to love my little one. To tell her,

“You are worthy, JUST THIS WAY.”

Stripping away decades of “socialization” is a painful and difficult process. There are added layers if you’re born into a female body in a still-patriarchal world. Or gender-fluid in a still-binary frame. Or born a person of colour in a still-racist society. I imagine many of us die without making it. Depending on our circumstance, some of us can’t.

If you’ve somehow made it here though, I imagine that you’ve already spent a lifetime trying. Trying hard to heal. Trying to be good enough, trying to do it just right, trying not to make mistakes and trying to figure it all out.

Now for just a minute, stop trying. Hold hands with the little one who still gleefully runs through the sprinkler with her shirt off.

Let her guide you for a minute.

She knows the way.

Worthy. By Annathyst.