| Not Just Another Flower |

I will not be another flower picked for my beauty and left to die. I will be wild, difficult to find, and impossible to forget! Erin Van Vuren.

I've been thinking a lot as we head closer to Valentine's Day this week, so many people have the wrong idea about this day & it's so easy to see why when we are constantly bombarded with 'couples' adverts, gifts and so on. But to me, one of the greatest forms of love is self-love!! It's where loving others starts from, because if you can't love yourself, you can't possible know how to love someone else. How we treat ourselves is how we know we've attracted the love we deserve. Love is for every day & every person.

Love is not self serving but kind and selfless ; gentle and thoughtful. If we're the opposite of these things, how are we ever to know when someone is loving us the way that we're meant to be loved? The world constantly throws negative thoughts and images our way, telling us we will love ourselves that bit more if we nip this or tuck that, use this makeup or wear this style of clothing. Lose that much weight or have that size chest. But, none of that matters, it isn't equivalent to loving yourself. Loving yourself is being able to look in the mirror and liking what you see despite the fingers that might be pointed at you to change this or that. Self love is taking care of your body and health while ignoring those haters that tell you that you're not the right size - screw those haters, there is not a one size fits all in this world, never was and never will be!! The only size that matters most is the size of your heart & your kindness. 

We put too much emphasis on what a person looks like more so than who they are as an actual person inside. We lift up snobs just because they look good and then half the world wrecks themselves to try and be what those people are. But, what if I told you that's not how it's meant to be? Because it's not, Just like the gigantic variation of flowers, we too come in all different colours, sizes, shapes, we grow & bloom in different times - our own times, we get knocked down by the storms of life, but like flowers grow again. Instead of trying to look or be like all the other 'flowers', recognize that you too are a flower' blooming, seek to be more than just beauty of the outside, but rare to find & so unique that you are remembered. Be wild & radical, love yourself. Accept any mistakes you make & forge a new path. Because the world has enough copycats, it's the ones that are willing to stand free & not just be another flower that we need to make all the difference. And you can't truly stand out if you aren't strong in the fact that you love yourself. Those are the flowers that bloom the brightest & the longest. They're the ones that can withstand the storms in this life yet continuously rise up again to shine the brightest.

So in this week, maybe you're worried that you don't have someone love, but you do - Yourself & you are deserving of all the love in the world! Have a great start to the week.

Loves & loves

xoxox

p.s. Flower hat is 50's vintage. 

XOXOXOX