Dear Nicole...

I made a promise to you today…

     One that I vow to never break,

     To never lose sight of,

     To never forget,

     To never refuse.

I vowed to love you unconditionally today…

     To pour out immense healing when you need it,

     To love you harder on the days you need it most,

     To honor you at all times,

     To listen to you even when you bury yourself in the silence,

     To run after you when you try to hide from life,

     To catch you when you fall,

     To show up today, tomorrow, and every other day…

I won’t ever abandon you.

You will never be abandoned again.

God and I vowed to always guard you,

Protect you,

And never leave your side.

Beautiful, you are a hurricane of movement…

     Fluid in love,

               Flooding in your outpours of it,

                         And powerful in your force of it…

You break levees of seasonal barriers caused by unattended to hurts,

You damage roadways leading back to historical fallacies,

You are a storm—beautiful in all of your loving ways.

And you deserve to be loved.

I know you’ve been hurt,

     been lied to

     been disappointed

     been cheated on

     been let down…

     forgotten,

     talked about,

     mistreated…

But I won’t do that to you.

You deserve more.

Anything less is a disrespect to your humanity.

Not another day will you have to worry,

Not another day will you have to search for love,

Not another day will you have to wonder if your tears have fallen in vain,

Not another day will you have to scream in silence,

Not another night will you cry yourself to sleep,

Not another morning will you wake up feeling forsaken,

Not another afternoon will you miss the beauty of a sunset—focusing on a lack of love….

You’ve got it all—love—you always have…

All you ever had to do was look inward…

I vow to always love you…

     to see you as magical,

     to see you as divine,

                       as brave,

                       as worthy,

                       as beautiful,

     to see you as pure.

I vow to always honor you,

     to always cover you,

                     respect you,

                     value you,

                     adore you.

I vow to always find you especially in those dark places when you go astray,

      forgetting there’s a redemption for you,

         to remind you of the light shining bright within you.

I vow to always find the beam in how you smile,

     the shine in how you sparkle—you’ll never again have to rely on any man for that, you’ll never have to rely on them to remind you of such because you’ve got me for that.

Black girl, you are magical!

     Even when the world tries to downplay it,

     YOU ARE BRILLIANT.

I promise…I pinky promise, like the one Jesus made with God to look pass your sin and still die for you…

I promise…to love you unconditionally.

Love Always & Forever, 

     Self.