A Letter For Yourself

Our lives are a constant state of change.
The places around us
The people around us
The circumstances around us.
We find new people to love.
Some people we love will leave us.

And we change too.

With so much change always flowing,
It can be hard to know what to hold on to:
The rocks you cling to for stability, safety, and happiness.

We need to remember that core deep inside us.
The essential self: the most important part of our souls.
What makes up that soul?
What do we value the most?
What connections must we never lose, no matter how things flow around us?

Every experience shapes us and teaches us
But that core should remain solid and strong.

We aren't the same person we were as a child, or as a teenager, or as a college student
Because everything around our core shifts and flows.
But just because the surroundings change does not mean that your core should change.

I look back on elementary school and cringe at my failure to understand how others felt.
I look back to middle school and flinch at how I wouldn't stand up for myself.
I look back at college and roll my eyes at my hobo sense of style.
I look back at graduate school and am shocked by how easy it is to misread people.
I look back at a job interview an hour before and groan, thinking that I should have said everything better.

It's true that the gift of hindsight lets you look at things from a safe distance,
And it lets you see a larger part of the picture.
These lessons have helped me to grow
But they have not changed my true core.

They have made my core stronger.

Sometimes it's hard to know what our true core really consists of.
We might lose something that we thought was a part of our core
Only to discover that it was not.
It can be painful,
But pain is what helps us learn and grow.

It's hard to know what we must not lose.
What we must fight to hold on to, with every ounce of our being.
We must not let people destroy those parts of our core.
This is different for every human.
But at the same time, there are things that we each share
And should strive for.

Love
Trust
Helping and respecting others
Compassion for life and our world
Understanding
Forgiveness

If we can strengthen our core
And try to understand the cores of others,
Our world will become a kinder, more tolerant place.
A place we can be proud to call home.