Dear Heart

Dear Heart-
I've been writing to others when I should have been writing to you. You're the one here with me, after all. You never left.

I'm sorry for all the times I abandoned you, discarded you, allowed you to be battered by others, or abused you myself. You never wavered, though you've might've been right to do so.

I swear I'm learning. Can you feel it? Through all the struggle and aches, I pray you feel the growth. Slow and steady and steadfast.

I commit to you, this day and on. I see you. I will do my best to honor you, knowing you have so much to give and share, but that you deserve so much goodness and respect in return. To feel appreciated and loved by myself and others.

I am as I am, we are as we are. Areas that feel deficient need not be sources of shame or anguish, but rather boundless spaces for change. From what feels like ruins, we shall construct new strongholds and beauties.

I am that tree. I've lost a branch and must prune and tend to the open wounds, but still I stand. My trunk and other branches remain, growing and blooming.

I wonder, do trees cry when they lose a branch?

All my deepest love and appreciation,
Alex