Daughters of the world,
I see you. I see you, girl-children and babies and girls-becoming-women. I see you on my daily journeyings to the grocery store and gym and tumbling on the playgrounds and in my friends' arms, and I hope you won't forget your wildness.
I don't need to know you to see your spirit, the fire in your eyes. There are people who will try to quench those flames, and some who will fan them with you. I hope you find more of the latter, and show the former your glorious teeth.
Because you are glorious. And it's your you-ness that makes you so. Don't forget.
The world has rules, so many rules, and a lot of them are about women, and a lot of those keep women small, stifled, afraid. You don't have to live by those rules, although it helps to know what they are. You have a choice. You always have a choice. Listen to your gut, for your wisdom lives inside.
I hope you will live big. I hope that you will sing your soul's song, bold and beautiful, and paint your story upon our hearts with the colors of your love. I hope you will never stop playing, asking, experimenting, trying. I hope you won't listen to the ones who tell you your dreams are stupid/silly/impossible.
I hope you will show up to your own life, precious and singular as it is.
I hope that if our paths should happen to cross again in ten years or twenty or more, that your eyes will still be blazing. But know that if they're not, that if somehow, somewhere along the way your fire was quenched, it's not too late. It's never too late to build those flames again. Let us gather the kindling together.
And daughters, know that you are so valuable. Not because of your mate or your children or your job or your doings, although those may all be very important, and part of your soul's calling. And certainly not because of how small a corner you are able to fold yourself away into at the subtle but powerful request of so many. But you are what makes your worth. Your being-alive-ness.
Don't forget.
You are powerful and visceral and mysterious and deliciously primal. You are light and darkness and everything in between. You are soul-made-flesh, a miracle of sass and spirit and sinew.
Don't forget. Don't forget.