What do I want you to know?

I want you to know that

No matter how hard you try

There’ll always be times when you fail

I want you to know that

No matter how many times you get back up to face the day,

Night will come again.

I want you to know that smiles don’t erase tears,

that joy doesn’t kill fears, that no matter how

big a person you are,

You will never, ever, ever have hands large

enough to carry the weight of the world.

I want you to know that you will watch

people you love suffer.

I want you to know that love

means hurting for another.

And I want you to know that you can scream and scream and scream until the dying of the light—

And some days nobody will hear you.

 

But I also want you to know

That no matter how many times you fail,

You can always come out stronger

I want you to know

That no matter how often comes the night

The day will just as surely follow.

And on those Antarctic nights that seem to last for months, not hours—count the stars.

Watch the beauty of the Southern

Lights as they play magic over your head,

vibrant, visible proof that your world is protected from on high.

 

I want you to know that even when the river of tears runs

too deep for smiles,

even when the fears have you running for miles,

even when it seems as though the world will

crush you with its weight—

I love you.

And love means hurting for another.

And love means growth and growth means pain and pain,

pain hurts. It hurts so bad you

want to scream and scream and scream, because when you know

enough people somebody’s always hurting

And your hands will always be just that little bit too small…

 

But for now

Just for today

As we sit in a bathroom full of steam and you stomp and clap and sing

Today your hand fits in mine, and

for you I can carry the weight of the world.

Today, I want you to know just one thing, and it is this:

Child? You are loved.