Oh you, beloved child

Forever wishing to be anyone

But yourself

Forever wishing to exist outside of this body

Unaware of how the light of the Divine surrounds you

Radiates from you

You were born clothed in excellence and in beauty

In beauty

They tell you that you must love yourself

But this is something unknown to you

How can you love

Such a thing

When you have only ever been taught to greet your reflection with a mouth full of hate

You believe the lie

that your worth resides in the eyes of those

that tell you beauty is light skin, straight hair

Thin nose, blue eyes

All you see is what you are not

Don’t you see how self harm takes many forms

Beyond a blade meeting skin

But just as sharp

“What an injustice” say your limbs

Pleading for you to accept them

To finally move like this body was made to fit

Like you own it

How can i love myself, you ask

As if it is among the secrets of the universe

But i must ask you,

How can you not

How can you live a life as your own enemy

When you were never created to be the cause of your own destruction

Sit with yourself

Finally,

And confront the person you are constantly running away from

Ask what you have been yearning to hear

How long have you been neglecting your heart

When it has been beating love songs

Just for you

All these years

Ask it

Are you comfortable in this body?

Sit with yourself

Finally,

And teach the different parts of you –

Forgotten and folded for the convenience of others –

To get along

Why do you carry the opinions of others as if they sustain you

Like water

When they are, in truth, nothing more

Than dust

You are living for yourself

For yourself

So value each breath

As If blown directly from God

And soak in your achievements

Rather than drown in your failures

Failure, though bitter

Produces the sweetest and most precious of fruits

Feed yourself the wisdom learnt in patient struggle

Reflect and see how strong you are

Know that forgiveness must extend to the one who gives it

As you give, so should you receive

You have grown learning to serve God and His creation

Whilst forgetting that you too are a soul created

Just as deserving of love

Just as deserving of joy

So indeed, you must tend to this body of yours

And think why you so readily give everything

To fill the belly of those

That never stopped to think

That you too, must eat

This is how self love is a form of worship

To truly love the Divine,

You must have divine love of self

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