This week asks a lot of us. Not because of the holiday itself, but because of what rises up inside us when the noise quiets. Gratitude isn’t about pretending — it’s about staying human, staying honest, and staying connected to what’s real.

There comes a moment when you realize you’ve spent years offering depth to people who could not meet you in return. Not because you were too much — but because your truth awakened what they’ve avoided in themselves. This letter is a reclaiming of your right to be met, without shrinking, without apology, and without negotiating with your own longing.

For years you believed that being needed was the same as being loved. That carrying the weight, keeping the light, holding steady through the storm was proof of your worth. But your body knows the truth: love is not earned. Love is given & received. And you are ready for the kind that stays.

There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from thinking so much we forget we have a body. We calculate, anticipate, intellectualize—and somewhere in the maze of analysis, the voice of our body grows quiet. But we are not broken for this. We are practiced. And there’s another way. Our body holds the map our mind has been searching for. And the next step isn’t more thinking—it’s noticing. One sensation, one breath, one heartbeat at a time.