You're Not Perfect, But You're Not Your Mistakes

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you are loved reasons to live

Know this — you are loved. You are worthy and beautiful in every way. You don’t have to be anyone other than who you are. You’ve made mistakes, just as we all have. You’ve said things you wish you could take back. You’re not perfect. But you’re none of these mistakes. You’re wonderful in the miracle of who you are. Everything you have overcome to get to this moment now. It wasn’t easy and it may not continue to be. But there is something more to this life than what we can see. And each day, allow yourself to move toward this — to wonder what it might be. The future may be dark and it may be scary. But know that you are held in the palm of your creators hand. That there is a space meant exactly for you here. You must find it and know that it exists. You are loved and may all the blessings of this earth wrap their arms around you to bloom and grow.

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Grief and Awakening to the Soul
Grief and Awakening to the Soul

For most of my life, I believed the soul to be a hypothetical abstraction. It was something religious people believed in, something separate and nothing to do with me.

But after experiencing loss and going through a time of grief, I know the soul to be a reality. When something such as grief comes along, and strips away all aspects of who you are and everything you think life is about, all that can possibly remain is your soul.

New Beginnings
New Beginnings

This is going to sound strange, but sometimes it helps to think of my past life and my past self as dead. They are no more. I am not the same person. I am now living a different life. For me to think of my past self still alive today with the unimaginable having occurred is too much to process some days. For me to be here now and to walk around the corner and to almost expect things as they once were is too painful.

The True Purpose of Grief
The True Purpose of Grief

Grief awakens you to pain but it also awakens you to your spirit. Life was never about your deadlines or work stress, or what this or that person said, or what this neighbor or friend had and what you didn’t, or anything it seemed at the face of it. It all seemed so important at the time, and yet all along life was about something else all along, something so much deeper. We know this because there is no amount of money or objects or status or security that can bring back the person you love, nothing that can turn back time. While life may have felt empty or meaningless at times, the truth is that it never was — every moment of your life with the person you lost was filled with meaning, filled with a purpose for you to know that life is all about love.

Love, Time, and Space
Love, Time, and Space

Sometimes you love who you love and there is no stopping it. Neither time nor space, nor life or death can change it. This is the nature of love — it never stops believing, never stops hoping.

Grieving: From Death to Life
Grieving: From Death to Life

There were many times when I wanted to give up. The pain was too great and immense. Loss is not just in the immediacy of it, but in all the reverberating ways in which it affects you and your life. In many ways, you must learn how to live again, how to breathe again. I am here to say that it can be done.

Light and Loss
Light and Loss

Our loved ones never leave us. They are always with us. The energy, attention, love, and care which they put into us can never be replaced — it added to our light and is always there. It is just now in a different form.

Grief, Sorrow, Joy, and Soul
Grief, Sorrow, Joy, and Soul

There is sadness in life and then there are sorrows — some sorrows for which there are no words. Sometimes it almost seems as if it is easier to think of yourself as dead and now living in an alternate universe — only then does it feel that the events of your life make sense, only then does the unimaginable become imaginable. How else could life continue on like this?

Grief and Awakening to Love
Grief and Awakening to Love

It has been four years since I went through a time of loss, four years since everything I knew and loved disappeared from my life. It is difficult to describe that kind of loss and the grief that comes with it. There is sadness. There is guilt. There is shame. Hopelessness. Discouragement. Emptiness. Futility. Fear, and above all, darkness — the type where death felt as if it would be the only reprieve. Some days, I would stand outside and watch leaves rustle in the wind and feel the beauty and pain of life all at once — how ephemeral life is and how blind we can be to its sweetness.

1 of the Absolute Best Quotes on Grief That Will Bring You Comfort and Peace
1 of the Absolute Best Quotes on Grief That Will Bring You Comfort and Peace

The quote in this post was originally posted by user GSnow on Reddit in a thread in which a woman asked for advice on how to cope with the recent death of her best friend. It’s one of the best descriptions of grief that I’ve ever read. When I connected with GSnow, he said that he’s been contacted over the years by so many people who have been touched by his response — people have asked to feature it on TV and t-shirts and everything, which was a surprise to him, as he was simply posting from his experience and heart. I’ve posted it here in case you find it helpful in your own experience and journey with grief.

Seasons of Grief, A Time to Every Purpose
Seasons of Grief, A Time to Every Purpose

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3: 1).

Sometimes we may feel discouraged, and feel as if life as we have known it is over. What lies ahead? We live in fear that our best days are behind us, that we have failed and made mistakes, that there is nothing to be done now, nothing that can turn back time and get us back to a place of what once was. In our darkest of moments, we wonder if there was a point to any of this suffering. What is life if it involves pain and grief like this? Life feels empty and meaningless. We feel like giving up.