Dear friends, I hope this little note finds you well and reveling in reminders of how deeply you are loved and how worthy you are of that love. I received an early Valentine last week from Sophia, the oldest daughter of my great friend, Theresa. On the back of the scalloped edged, heart shaped note card she meticulously printed, ‘I love you so much, Dawn. I hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day. Love, Sophia’
With wide eyes, a big smile, and the sweet confidence of an eight-year-old, she pulled me aside and said, ‘I made this for you.’ She placed the homemade Valentine in my hand, hugged me, and stood there as I read the message. It was so simple and it is so true. I am loved and wished happiness (and so are you). I tucked the Valentine on the edge of a frame in my room so that I could remember Sophia’s thoughtfulness and the truth in the message she wrote. I treasure little notes like this and litter them through my space – in my wallet, taped to the Kuerig, on the fridge, hanging in the kitchen, at my desk, on the mirror in my room, in the car. They are gifts that remind me how deeply I am loved, seen, cared for in the eyes of the people I love most in the world. For so long, I had an insatiable appetite for these reminders. I have boxes of notes stored in in my attic from what feels like a lifetime of wanting to be loved. I literally could not get enough because no matter how thoughtful and heart-felt the messages were, I doubted their truth. I thought they were conditional and believed that I was unworthy. None of the outside messages could convince the inside messenger. Until one day, I decided to write a love letter to myself. I grabbed a post-it and wrote, You are loved exactly as you are. I stuck this love letter to myself to the bathroom mirror and read it each time I met my own eyes. The next day, I grabbed another note and wrote, You are worthy. The next day, You are seen. You are enough. You are more than what you do what you do. You deserve joy and unabashed happiness. You are good enough AS IS. You are love. You are not alone. You are forgiven. You are radiant. You are powerful when vulnerable. The messages I needed to hear most had been said to me over and over and over in voices that were not my own and I resisted believing them to be true. UNTIL I began using my own voice, to love my own life, to offer myself the words I ached to believe, receive, and embody. As Sophia placed her little Valentine in my hand and I held the message in my heart, I trusted her and me and love itself because I know all of that to be true. I am loved and so are you. I deserve happiness and so do you. Choosing Wholeness empowered me in this process of loving myself, receiving with gratitude the goodness that is showered down upon me, and spreading radiant love out into the world. I wonder what message/s you need to gift yourself these days? I wonder what would happen if you
started a revolution of your heart with pen and post-it in hand? This is how Choosing Wholeness happens: one step, one practice, one post-it at a time. Trust you are loved. Always, Dawn
This post was originally published on choosingwholeness.com