Love Letters From Ari

from my heart <3

Let it breathe—let it land—try it on—take it off.

“Am I doing it right?” - The question I’m constantly searching for an answer to. Funny though, I’ve only considered other people’s answers valid.

Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we had a step-by-step guidebook that literally gave us the answers?

To mitigate the discomfort, the heartbreak, the fluff—to get right to the point..? I have felt like I’m wasting time over here! Soo much pressure on myself these past few years.

I’m 29 years old and I often get the comment “You don’t look 29”. I’m not sure if that should make me feel better, worse, or anything at all. My response almost every time is something along the lines of “I have lived 29 full years, and there’s no way I would be who I am in shorter time”.

That’s true.

So back to the guidebook—If I was given the guidebook, would I open it?

No.

The wisdom is through living the experiences, and that can’t be rushed.

Sure, you can pass through these days without actually looking at what life is handing you—numbing the senses because feeling big feelings is too much…

But it is the glory through it all that transforms you into who you truly are.

So much has occurred—between the lines, above them and below them.

For what?

The greatest, most painful experiences are lived, not read about in a guidebook. That “book” is around you at all times—in the people you meet, in the places you go, in the hurt, in the beauty.

And it comes with a big mission—how deep are you willing to go to arrive at YOU?

It changes each day, each season. Some days the deepest thing you can do is stay as present as you can—no searching or uncovering.

Simply living.

I’ve been told many times that the extraordinary is in the ordinary.

Here I am seeing what that’s all about.

A lot of “Is this too much?”, and my reframe for that guttural feeling is “No baby Ari, it’s you”.

It’s a love letter to myself in my very own corner of the universe.

-Ari