An open letter to: dear baby

//this was written for someone young, someone who doesn't know non-familial love, someone who is yet to experience what becoming someone's chosen person is like, someone who is still looking forward to a life of magic.

Dear baby, I hope when you are of my age you’ll know that no matter how much love hurts, it’s worth the risk. I hope you’ll know that even though it’ll feel like a straight punch to the chest and even though, it would knock all the air out of your lungs, it’s still worth the suffocation because it’ll also make you feel so light you’ll be floating on the land you used to walk on. It’ll consume you like a forest fire and fill up your guts with the smoke of the broken promises, it’ll burn and burn until you won’t be able to take it anymore, but it’ll also make you shine so bright the stars will have to come down and ask you for your secret to the glow.

Dear baby, I hope when you are of my age you’ll know that the honey dewed words he whispers in your ears won’t always be sweet and melodious, that you’ll have the strength you’ll need on the worst days to know when to let go and when to hold on. And when you wish to leave everything behind and your ribs start to squeeze your heart too tight and it feels like you’re going to die, like this is the moment you take your last breath. I hope you’ll know that those moments do not define your life, that you are so, so much more than the nights it’s hard to live. I hope you’ll know that even the caterpillar has to break all of its cells down and turn to mush inside the cocoon, before flying away in its vibrant wings as butterflies.

Dear baby, I hope when you are of my age you’ll know that it’s not the end. I hope you’ll know that their comments and all the nauseating gazes, and the overheard abuses will slowly fade away from your mind and someday from your heart, too. I hope you’ll know that even if one day you feel like you’ve forgotten to live, you’ll be able to learn to breathe again. You’ll see the beauty in this sometimes awful world, because that’s what will give you the hope to carry on, on your sad days. I hope you know that even if you stand in a burning house if your heart is strong, you won’t burn.

-S