One of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Gilbert, has started a new passion project.
From the Letters From Love website:
What?
LETTERS FROM LOVE is both a learning space and a spiritual practice. Here, people come together to discover their inherent value and exquisite preciousness, and to learn how to write and speak to themselves from a place of love and friendliness.
Why?
The mission of this project is to teach people how to speak and write to themselves in a more loving and friendly manner than the familiar inner critic who so often dominates our minds and punishes our spirits.
How?
Find a quiet moment, when you can still your thoughts a bit.
Open up a notebook and write down this one question:
Dear Love — What would you have me know today?
And then allow the answer to come. What would Unconditional Love tell you, if it had a voice? What does your heart need to hear today, in this exact moment? Where is the suffering, and what does it long to be told? What reassurance or comfort does your spirit need? Let the words come.
ELIZABETH GILBERT
18 SEP 2023
I hope this inspires you. I hope this makes you aspire to be more loving and kind to yourself. I hope you give this a try.
My own Letter From Love:
1/26/2024
Dear Terra Jean,
Oh, sweet girl, today was a seismically difficult day. So difficult, in fact, that you could have crumbled into 1 million pieces from the quake. You should have completely shattered.
But you didn't. Sure, a few pieces fell, but you remained whole in your resolve. You are so strong.
You made a huge mistake and then you had the grace and wisdom to whisper to yourself "You are human."
In an instant, and before you could retract your blunder, your beautiful friends and family reached out to you to say: "I'm here. I can help put the pieces back together. You are not fully shattered."
They told you that maybe what you shared wasn't a mistake after all. Maybe they, or someone you know, needed to hear that message.
It was the kind of sweetness that only can be described as that feeling when the cotton candy hits your tongue and a tickle overwhelms the roof of your mouth- a strange bodily sensation, but delightful all the same. You almost wonder if you imagined it.
For a brief moment in time, the beautiful words, vulnerability, and gentle kindness from those you love, made you forget that your heart deeply aches.
Then your thoughts went back to the pain.
But, I am here to remind you that you are loved so deeply by me, Terra!
I am always here.
I will never leave you.
You have asked me:
"How do I know I'm worthy of love?"
My response, dear one, is this:
Grace.
You are loved because you are love.
You were born worthy and loved.
You don't have to earn it.
We are all love personified.
The problem, dear one, is that we spend our whole lives searching for love, only to find it hiding in plain site...
Right within us.
With gentle kindness,
Unconditional Love ❤️
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