I am proud of you.
And I don't mean you in the general sense.
I mean you.
The person listening to this meditation right now.
I'm proud of you.
Because if you're listening to this,
It means you're still here.
You're still showing up.
You're still trying.
And somehow,
Despite everything you've been through,
Some part of you still believes that things can get better.
So before we do anything else.
.
.
Take a moment to recognize that.
You're still here.
You came to play the game of planet Earth,
And planet Earth is one of the hardest games in the galaxy.
Nobody gets through this game without taking some damage along the way.
It doesn't matter how much money you start with,
How many advantages you have,
Or how many power-ups you collect.
Eventually,
Everybody takes damage.
We lose people we love.
Relationships change.
Plans fall apart.
We make mistakes.
People disappoint us,
And sometimes we disappoint ourselves.
Nobody gets through this game untouched,
And you didn't even get to choose your starting conditions.
You just showed up one day.
You didn't choose your family,
Where you were born,
Or most of the circumstances you started with.
You were handed a character.
Dropped into the game and told to play.
And nobody gave you an instruction manual.
You've been learning how to play the game while you've been playing it.
You've had to learn how to love people and lose people.
How to make decisions,
How to deal with fear and anger.
How to get hurt.
And somehow open yourself up enough to risk getting hurt again.
Sometimes you've played beautifully.
And sometimes,
You've completely screwed it up.
Welcome to Planet Earth!
That's part of the game too.
Maybe you spend a lot of time thinking about the ways you could have played it better.
Things you should have said.
Things you shouldn't have said.
Opportunities you missed.
Choices you wish you could make again.
But there's something important you're forgetting.
The person who made those decisions didn't know everything you know now.
They had less experience.
For fewer lessons.
They were learning how to play while they were playing.
And somehow they got you here.
Maybe not perfectly.
Maybe with some scars.
Maybe you've taken a lot of damage along the way.
But you're here.
So maybe instead of judging the person you used to be for everything they got wrong,
You could thank them for getting you this far.
Think about that version of you for a moment.
The one who went through something they weren't sure they could handle.
They didn't know you were coming.
They didn't know there would eventually be a day when you would be sitting here looking back at them.
They just kept going,
One day at a time,
Sometimes one breath at a time.
And eventually they became you.
That person deserves some compassion.
They deserve some forgiveness.
They even deserve some gratitude.
Because whatever else you can say about them,
They got you here.
And you're still playing.
You're still learning.
You're still trying to understand yourself.
Some part of you still cares about what happens next.
And that matters.
At the beginning of this meditation,
I told you that I'm proud of you.
And I meant it.
But most importantly.
.
.
I hope you're proud of yourself.
For making it this far.
For everything you've survived that nobody else knows about.
For the times you tried again when you weren't sure you had another try left in you.
For continuing to learn how to play this strange,
Beautiful,
Frustrating,
And heartbreaking game.
Stay strong and keep choosing the continue game option.
You
