Consider this : always trust your own heart

May 12, 2010 in Uncategorized

To Emma

Here are a few things that will help to make your life meaningful over and over because they are the things in life that endure: love, trust and hope.

Love as much as you can, Emma, with your whole heart. This won't ensure that you will be loved back or that your heart won't be broken. It will only ensure that you are a loving person.

Trust that things will turn out right, not always the way you wish but there are great things in store for you. A rewarding career, wonderful places to live, others who will love you back because you have chosen to be a loving person.

Trust that the world is wide and beautiful and holds many surprises and delights. Astounding wonders. You will learn this over and over as you travel through it. See as much as you can. Learn how others live differently from you. Explore how they cook their food, how they love their children and each other, how they build their homes and clothe their bodies. Learn how they celebrate the important moments in their lives. Let all of this influence you.

However, trust that the threads that run through your own life will weave into a beautiful cloth that is unique to you.

Most importantly, always trust your own heart.

Dare to hope, Emma. Hope that this planet survives. Hope that cancer will be cured. Hope that children will stop being hurt. Hope for whatever it is that your heart holds dear. Hope and trust and love are three lovely sisters, don't you think?

Oh and one last thing, Emma. You know how you love to laugh? How your sides ache and the muscles in your face hurt? Don't ever lose the ability to let humor wash over you, grab ahold of you and just crack you up into hundreds of happy little pieces! When love fails, or hope doesn't deliver or trust is tested, laughter is your best bet. It will see you through and it is just darn fun, isn't it? Be a loving, trusting, hopeful person.

-Terry Hartley

I am gathering wisdom from the far corners of the earth to give Emma as she graduates from high school. What would you say to her? Or to your own 17-year-old self? What thoughts would you ask her to consider? You can submit your advice (instructions here) and 37 of those will be posted, one each day, culminating in a free e-book of all the submissions after her graduation on June 14th.

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.