Alli

I need you to know something right away.

None of it was your fault.

Not the weight you carried. Not the pain that was never yours but still ended up in your hands.

Not the silence you sat in, or the moments you tried to scream and still were not heard.

I see you. Wild hearted, aching, trying so hard to be good, to fix things, to keep people safe. I remember how you thought that if you were just better, if you made fewer mistakes, maybe the chaos around you would calm down. Maybe people would not hurt so much. Maybe you would not either.

But the truth is, the train was never yours to stop.

You did not put anyone on those tracks.

You called for help.

You screamed until your voice cracked.

You tried.

And still, someone told you it was your fault. Someone told you the story of your life could only ever be one long consequence. They were wrong. That voice was never truth. It was fear pretending to be fact.

I know how hard it was to believe you were worthy of gentleness. That you did not have to earn love by suffering. But you are. And you do not. I promise.

You deserved comfort.

You deserved protection.

You deserved someone to say, I believe you, and then to stay.

And now I am saying it.

I believe you.

I forgive you for the things you should never have felt guilty for.

I love you. Not despite your past, but because of how you have carried yourself through it.

I am still here. You made it. And I am building a life now that does not demand your sacrifice. A life that welcomes softness. That calls your name gently. That offers rest.

You do not have to lay on the tracks anymore. Come sit with me in the field. There is light here.

With everything I have,