Blog Overview
Care of Souls

A Letter from Love.

Love doesn't need you stronger, more productive, more successful – it says, with quiet certainty, that you are already enough.

Bella went back to Elizabeth Gilbert's letters – yes, the Eat Pray Love one – and found the one written in the voice of Love itself. What moved her is what moves this whole site: Love has no improvement plan for you. It doesn't need you stronger or more successful. It says, calmly: you are already enough.

Coming Alive was born from those same letters, and Bella's reading lands on the same freeing lines: you are not lost, you are not late, there hasn't been a single wrong turn. You're allowed to stop trying so hard – there's nothing to prove and no one to race.

Her image for the realization is the truest one: a deep breath. Take the three minutes; the exhale comes included.

Recently I was rereading Elizabeth Gilbert's letters – yes, that Elizabeth Gilbert, from Eat, Pray, Love. And one of them, a letter written in the name of Love itself, touched me deeply.

Love – as Elizabeth Gilbert describes it – sets itself no goal of changing us or making us “better.” It doesn't need us to be stronger, more productive, or more successful. Instead it speaks with quiet certainty: You are already enough.
Love assures us: you are not alone – and never were. It invites us to let go of guilt, to stop trying so hard, and to remember that we have nothing to prove – and we are competing with no one.
One of the most freeing messages goes like this: You are not lost. You are not late. You are exactly where you should be, at exactly the right time, doing exactly what is needed. There has not been a single wrong turn. The realization feels like a deep breath – a reminder that we are already in the stream of life.

Translated from Russian
by Bella

Thank you for reading.

If her words reached somewhere mine don't – good. That's what this blog is for. Take what fits and leave the rest.

– Jan

Where this comes from:

The original post
This post on Telegram, as Bella published it – in Russian.
С нежностью к себе
Bella's channel on Telegram – all of her posts, in Russian.

Read more

Coming Alive
Elizabeth Gilbert asked Love how to become more alive. The answer: stay in your lane, set down what was never yours, come home – and let life bloom from within.

Post by post:

Sitting on Clouds
The next post
Without Frames
The previous post

If you're new here: these posts come from Bella's Telegram channel «С нежностью к себе». What this blog is, and why – read more here.

Care of Souls
Bella walks the same way in a completely different voice – diary-honest, from the middle of life. Selected posts from her Telegram channel, translated from Russian.