To little Cher:

I loved you young.
I love you now.
And I’ll love you old.

Every single version that has brought me to where I am today.
Where I was yesterday.
Where I will be tomorrow.

I love you.

Your unapologetic way of being you.
Each version of you.

From the first word I spoke to the word I am re-learning now…

“No.”
The word is “no.”

It shaped me.
It made me.
And now it’s changing me…
reverting me back into who I was.

I am becoming more and more me than I’ve ever been.

Full circle.

I am me re-becoming me.
Being born again into myself.

Re-learning how I unlearned boundaries.

I said “no.”
Did you hear me?
No, I don’t want it.
No, I don’t like it.
No, I don’t approve.

I protected my own peace.
I drew a very straight line with my “no.”
With my decisiveness.

Somewhere along the way I started to say “yes.”
Yes, even when I didn’t want it.
Even when I didn’t like it.
Even when I didn’t approve.

I tried to keep the peace.
My line was blurred by indecision.

By keeping the peace for everyone else I broke my own.
I destroyed myself pleasing everyone else.

No.
it came around again,
full circle.

My first word that later on I forgot how to say.

Return to your childhood self.
Become the real you.
The you that you were before the world changed you.

And I have.
Thank you little me.

I’m 30 now and I’m learning to say it again.
It gets easier every time.

You find your inner peace again.

Thank you little Cher, for the wisdom you’ve brought back.

~ Older Cher