Love YOU first...confessions of a (tired) daydreamer

Dear Brave Girl,  Somewhere along the way, you lost your shine. You let the weight of the world hold you down. You forgot who you were and what your purpose on this earth was. You listened to the voices that told you that you weren't good enough, not skinny enough, not brave enough, not worthy enough. You succumbed to the life of settling...a life of ordinary. You stopped believing in yourself. You battled the demons in your head and you let them win. You lost your smile, your passion, your light. You became broken.  But you're still standing.  And I am here to remind you of who YOU are.  You are a warrior. You are a survivor. You have overcome everything that was supposed to break you down because you kept getting back up. You faced it all head on. You are strong. You are brave. You are worthy of so much more than you give yourself credit for. You have power in your story. You never quit. You step up and take on the burdens of others, without hesitation. You keep gi...

When you become a parent, no one tells you about all the hard parts. I'm not talking about the sleepless nights, the crying for hours, or the fact that losing the baby weight can sometimes take years. I'm not talking about the teething, the "terrible twos" or even the grocery store tantrums. I'm not talking about the hours of screaming in long car rides, the battles over food or the endless outgrowing of clothes. I'm not talking about the sassy attitudes or the frustrations over doing school work.  Nope, none of that is relevant here.  I am talking about the other hard parts. The big feelings, the borrowed time, and the fact that your heart is forever living outside of your body.  I'm talking about the tears of disappointment when they fail their first test or lose their first game. The heartbreak of a first love. I'm talking about watching them ride off to school on the bus for the first time, or dropping them off and waving goodbye as they walk away....