Be Kind and Rewind: A Love Letter to the One We Were

Once upon a time, not that long ago, those words glowed from sun faded posters in movie rental shops, while the smell of popcorn lingered in the air. A polite reminder to return a story to its beginning. Back then, it felt like nothing more than good manners.

Now, those same words carry a buttery-salty ache of hindsight, that oh so familiar longing to rewind our own lives back to the parts we hit fast-forward through, survived through, just endured somehow, and quite simply didn't understand yet.

That's the quiet invitation that is often left unsent on Valentine's Day.

Not roses. Not chocolates. Nor stuffies. Not Romance.

But an invitation to rewind, to return.

“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.” —Brene Brown 

Put yourself back into those shoes you wore 12, 25, even 40 years ago,

(not the shoes themselves, because if you're like me you've kept shoes way too long).

Stand where you once stood.

Look at who you've become.

What you've overcome.

Would that earlier version of you, the one who was still learning how to simply hold their own feelings without taking up too much space, recognize the person you are now? Would they be proud? Would they feel relief? Would they lightly whisper, "Did we make it"?

The truth is that every version of us, or how I've liked to think about it, seasons of us, has been on a quest. Some quests we may accept before we are even ready. Others we stumbled into long before we even knew what it was. But each one has helped carry us right here.

This Valentine's Day how about we offer something different, a moment of appreciation, love and admiration for the selves, the versions who walked before us. The ones who endured. The ones who sacrificed love, comfort, innocence, or certainty so that we could grow into someone capable of loving ourselves with honesty instead of illusion.

Happy Valentine's Day, Friends.

And to the past seasons of us,

the ones who kept going anyway,

the one who held the line,

the ones who held the door,

and the ones who found a way to survive...

this is for you.

"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding." — Khalil Gibran