This is for the gorgeous, gentle-hearted warriors who have been told, over and over and over again, that their softness is the weakest thing in the world.

This is for the kindness-kissed, empathic badasses who have tried, and deliciously failed, to “toughen up” or put on prickly armor just because the world said they should.

This is for the wild, indigo spirits who are super strong precisely because they dare to crack open their hearts and feel it all, every damn day, despite the mountains of struggle and valleys of pain they’ve faced.

This is for you. For me. This is for us to remember that gentleness and open-heartedness are the strongest, fiercest forces in the world.

We have walked through hell and crawled on our hands and knees through the hottest fires of transformation to pry open our dripping hearts and become who we are today. So, let us not waste a moment.

Let us make the world more beautiful right now—by loving, by feeling—by living proudly from the glittering depths of our stardust hearts and being exactly ourselves.

Let us finally celebrate who we are. Bring the confetti. Bring the magic under your skin. Bring your naked heart.

Playing small? Let’s be done with that.

Denying who we are or believing we’re victims? Let’s be done with that, too.

Let us reach out far and wide, under the pale glow of moonlight, stretching across cities and state lines, across oceans that divide and take each other’s hands. Let’s unzip our fears and worries and let’s dance together to the blazin’ banging neon drum beats of our wild, thirsty, gentle, fierce, poetic, one-of-a-kind hearts—lighting up the entire universe unapologetically with the rapturous sparks of our exquisite electricity.

Let us finally celebrate who we are.

We laugh a lot. We cry a lot. We feel—we feel everything, even when we don’t want to.

We feel the morning breeze slice through our skin, like a lusty lover. We taste the dripping sorbet sunset on our tongues like a ripe, dancing mango. We feel cars zoom by the highway, the sound of roaring engines crashing though our bones, knocking us over like ecstatic ocean waves. We feel stranger’s smiles, a friend’s gnawing confusion, a lover’s twisted agony, a sister’s beauty and subtle undertow of sadness—it all plunges deep into our guts and vibrates through our bones, like hyperactive hummingbirds.

It hurts. It’s joyous. It’s painful. It’s beautiful. It’s terrible.

How could we not be strong to feel as much as we do?

How could we do anything but dance to songs of sublime ecstasy and tango to the delicious depths of darkness?

We are meant to feel it all. It’s no accident. Every drop of emotion that lands on our tongues is sacred. Every feeling that passes through our hearts is a journey we’re encouraged to take.

Our hearts are soft? Hell yes, they’re soft.

So what?

That’s never made us weak or fragile. It’s never made us ridiculous or overemotional. It’s never made us less worthy.

Yet, we have been told our whole lives that our softness makes us weak, that our sensitivity is a curse, that our emotional intensity is just way too much to bear—and maybe, we even started to believe it.

But we’re not weak—we never were. We are a different kind of strong.

We are warriors. Goddesses. Divine instruments of truth. Gritty truth-seekers. Healers of soul. Artists of earthy beauty. Survivors of abuse. Lovers dedicated to making the world more beautiful, one deep breath at a time.

We are ultraviolet souls, unafraid to set ourselves on fire as often as we possibly can.

We shed our skin daily—dying and come back to life in seas of frothy, fire-singed poetry.

We smile so big and laugh so loud because we know pain so intimately—because we know grief and terror and heartbreak like the back of our hand.

Our smiles are not untouched by darkness—they beam like lasers because we know what it feels like to be utterly poisoned with self-hatred, smothered with fear and bitterness, unable to face the day.

We have fought bravely in the mud and rain and sh*t—we have risked everything to stand in our truth and be alive today.

Yes, we know how to fight, but most of all—we know how to love. And that’s the most powerful thing in the world, is it not?

We are born to be forces of love.

Let’s be done pretending that doesn’t matter. Let’s be done pretending that isn’t beautiful.

It’s our ruby-encrusted destiny—it’s our juiciest journey.

Let’s make a pact to ourselves—let us never again apologize for our soft hearts. Let us never, ever stop caring too much or feeling too deeply. Because the world needs us—the ones who care too much and feel too deeply.

It needs us so f*cking badly.

Stand up, stand tall and let stardust blow in your hair.

Root into your deepest being.

Let your heart spill over the edges and become an unbreakable sea of divine intensity.

Because your softness is your strength. It always was. Your ability to feel is your biggest blessing and your oozing, open heart is the most glorious gift there ever was.

No more shame. No more guilt. No more playing tragically small.

Stand up, stand tall, and let stardust blow in your hair.

Let’s reach across the globe, hearts naked, smiles beaming like fireflies, tears flowing like rivers—as we rise up together, bathing ourselves and the entire spinning earth, in sparks of otherworldly electricity.

We give a f*ck—and we always will.

The world needs people like us—the ones who feel too much and care too deeply—so let us share our juicy, imperfect one-of-a-kind hearts with the world.

Let us sing from the dizzying heights of epic evergreen mountaintops and stand so tall in who we are

And make magnificent magic with every breath we take

And weave love into all that we do

And be intensely kind

And roar with authentic ectasy

And live from the harrowing depths of our souls

And feel it all

And never

Ever

Stop.

.

Author: Sarah Harvey

Editor: Yoli Ramazzina

Photo: Purchased by the author, via Shutterstock.