Ashes To Bloom

Here’s the truth that’s hard to hear:

The only reason you allowed that light to be dimmed is because, somewhere along the way, you stopped believing in it yourself.

Not because you’re weak.
Not because you’re broken.
Not because you deserved it.

But because life has a way of teaching us to doubt our luminosity.

Maybe:

• Your childhood taught you that shining too brightly brought punishment
• Your family told you to “not get too big for your britches”
• Society praised you for being accommodating, pleasant, small
• Early relationships rewarded you for dimming yourself
• You learned that love = sacrifice, and sacrifice = erasure

So, when they came along – the one who would eventually try to extinguish you completely – you were already practiced at making yourself smaller.

You’d already learned that your light was something to apologize for.

But here’s what I need you to understand:

That dimming? That shrinking? That constant apologizing for taking up space?

It was never necessary. And it was defeating the very purpose for which you were born.