15/07/2025
Forgive yourself
for what you had to do to survive.
Forgive yourself for who you were
before you knew better.
Forgive yourself
for being fallible, broken,
for being less than perfect.
Touch the earth
in your small humanness.
Feel the dirt beneath your feet,
between your fingers,
and how your tears water
the parched, cracked soil.
Forgive yourself
for not being more,
for not knowing more,
for learning through experience,
or the hard way.
For what you did to survive life’s winters,
across life’s thin ice.
For your mistakes.
You survived.
You are here.
And in the forgiveness,
let your hands reach down
to soothe your own broken heart,
and from there,
the broken hearts of others.
For we grow humble in our falls,
compassionate through our imperfection,
not our perfection.
Forgive yourself.
Let the weight of these lessons
hold you firmly
in their dark wisdom
to the earth —
And from there,
like a sky of shining lanterns,
set your soul free.
( ✍️ Rachel Alana Falconer )
Art : Christine Kellerman
