Day Three of World Childless Week is about "A Letter to My Younger Self."
Do you wish you could send your younger self the strength, confidence and love to face the future you’ve already lived? Let them know they are worthy and perfect just as they are, no matter what decisions they make and what life throws at them? Write that letter and share with them everything you can to help them realise how important they are, how much they matter and what positives they bring to the world and those around them.
A letter to release the negatives and forgive the self imposed judgements.
Writing letters -- to our younger selves, to our unborn children -- just writing, period (and certainly blogging!), has been proven to be highly therapeutic in all sorts of situations, and I'm a firm believer in its value. I don't believe I have written such a letter to myself in the past -- but I do sometimes look back on the girl and young woman that I was and think about how she had NO IDEA about the challenges that would face her -- the "for worse" part of the marriage vows that nobody ever thinks they'll have to deal with, or just how "worse" things can and sometimes do get.
What would I tell her now, at age 61? I think most of all, I would tell her not to be so hard on herself. And that while the life she'll wind up with won't be anything like the life she thought she'd be leading, all those years ago -- and while she's going to have to go through a lot of crap by the time she's my age -- it's still a pretty damn good life, on balance. :)
Check out today's content on the WCW site, including community members' contributions and a couple of free, live Zoom webinars on this subject.
- At 12 noon (Eastern Time), Bindi Shah is hosting a workshop on "Write to heal -- a letter to your younger self."
- And at 3 p.m. (ET), Jody Day of Gateway Women is hosting one of her regular quarterly fireside chats with a group of childless elderwomen who will be reflecting on this topic.
"not to be so hard on herself." -- oh, me, too.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, yes! I think it's a women thing, isn't it? We're so hard on ourselves. I'm much better at being kind to myself now.
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