In case you forget—it’s okay to not have everything all figured out.

It’s okay to feel lost. We are all lost at one time or another.

Sometimes we may have an idea of where we want to be, but we lose our way and find ourselves wandering aimlessly about. It’s okay to wander. It’s okay to amble about, and pause to look up at the vast blue sky above and feel small. It’s okay to feel confused and insecure, and not know which way to turn.

Just keep moving. Keep seeking.

You will find your way, when it’s time for your way to be found.

It’s okay to feel lonely. Sometimes, we feel loneliest when many people surround us. We feel the need to put up a façade. To smile, masking the pain we feel on the inside, isolating us further. Sometimes we need to put on a mask to get through the day. It’s okay to hide when you feel like nobody gets it. Sometimes we need time to retreat within ourselves, so we can sit with those feelings that lurk behind the mask.

It’s okay to let it out. Sometimes we don’t want to talk, so we hide. Sometimes we do want to talk, but fear no one wants to listen. Let it out anyway. Let it out on paper. Let it out in tears. Let it out vocally—in a scream to the air or a whisper in someone’s ear. Let yourself be heard. It’s okay to want to be heard.

It’s okay to feel vulnerable.

This is the hardest thing to remember, especially when you’ve been hurt in the past. Pain cuts deeply, to the core of our being. Surface wounds heal, but beneath layers of skin, scar tissue builds in the places we’ve been injured. Including the heart. It can be so hard to acknowledge the pain that becomes so deeply buried, but when we do, we open ourselves up to experience true healing.

It’s okay to feel angry. It’s okay to acknowledge the way we react to other people or events in our life. There is always some other feeling at the root of our anger—injustice, regret, frustration, grief. So many emotions whirling around inside of us, sometimes we are unable to process them, and with no constructive way to manifest, they become seeds of rage. This is why we must remind ourselves…It’s okay to feel.

It’s okay to feel hurt. It’s okay to feel sad.

It’s okay to feel whatever emotion you experience. Your feelings are valid! It can sometimes be hardest to acknowledge this to ourselves, and that’s okay. It’s all just part of it.

It’s okay to not know what the fuck you are doing. Or what the fuck you should be doing. Or how the fuck you are supposed to get there.

It’s okay to not have it all figured out.

Nobody has it all figured out. Sometimes people appear like they do, but they don’t. So don’t feel like you need to!

It’s enough to just be. To breathe, and keep one foot in front of the other as you trudge your way through the day.

And some days, you may find that some days your footsteps may become lighter. You might even find that your heart feels lighter. You may feel like you have found your way.

And that’s okay too!

It’s okay to feel happiness and joy and love and all the things we want so badly that sometimes feel so far out of reach. It’s okay to feel gratitude.

When you feel these things, allow yourself to sink into the abyss and to breathe it all in and let it flow through you, carrying you away into the stars.

Sweep your fingertips along those stars and slip a fistful of stardust down deep into your pocket. Store it there until a time comes when you need to leave a trail of stardust behind you, so you can find your way back, when you feel lost again.

Because you will.

We all lose ourselves again and again. But we also find parts of ourselves. We discover new truths. We have breakthroughs. We have fallbacks. We admit things to ourselves. We admit things to others.

We are fragile, so fragile! We are broken and glued back together, sometimes just to be shattered again.

But each and every time we piece ourselves back together, we become a stronger version of ourselves.

We cannot become stronger without first being weak. We cannot find our way, if we are not lost. We cannot discover and re-discover ourselves, it we are already certain of everything we are or might be.

We are mysteries! We are stories unraveling. We are human hearts bursting with potential. So much so, that sometimes we overwhelm ourselves. And that’s okay too. It’s okay to not know.

Not knowing gives us the joy of discovering. Learning. Piecing the puzzle pieces together. Figuring it out. One bit at a time.

In case you forget—you are an amazing human being! Your heart beats and your lungs breathe and there is treasure within you that cannot be found in any other being on this planet.

You are your own, unique you, with the potential of the universe and everything else inside of you.

And if you don’t have it all figured out, that’s okay.

That’s what this little life is for.

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Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: Author’s own