Feline

“I still feel self-conscious… but not enough to stop myself from dressing up, buying flowers, booking a table for one, and ordering whatever comes to mind.”

Late February. Not too late to make a new friend. 
Her name is Feline. Her friends call her Felly.

Can I? 

“Yes, please call me Felly.” She said when I asked later.

Middle March. At around the same time The Coeur was launched, it came to my attention that she, too, had debuted her personal newsletter—“a fun journal entry”, she calls it—which she sends out, privately, to her friends. 

With her permission, my partner—who introduced us at a home-cooked dinner she hosted—showed it to me. 

I loved it right away. It was a love letter to her self. 
Yet, her words were speaking to me, too.

We all have our own ways of giving love. To ourselves, to those we choose. Her love (from my own observations) is food, making a meal, and sharing moments of her pleasures and discoveries—a glimpse into her inner world through creative expressions such as this montage.

Something made with heart. Something made for no other reason than to get to know oneself better. Than for the fun of it. Than to remember one’s dreams.

“In the process of putting it together, it reminded me of all the magazines I used to love poring through as a kid. I so badly wanted to be a magazine writer, so I guess it is my ode to that little dream.”

Reading it made me smile. Isn’t that reason enough to do anything? To put a smile in someone’s day. A simple PDF. It is too good to not share. And so, I had to ask. 

Can I publish it? 

She would think about it. 

What we say yes to, and why. How much of ourselves are we comfortable, ready and willing to share with the world. Boundaries. “Let me think about it.” It was a good reminder of how uncomplicated, how empowering it is to honour ourselves. Sometimes self-love is as simple as a pause. Space to check in with what we really want.

One week later, she said yes.

“I hope my little discoveries about self might inspire others.”

Inspired by Felly

To Read: The Attachment Solution, Charisse Cooke
To Recharge: Ahimsa Sanctuary
To Revisit: Lonestar, Norah Jones
To Romance my friends: Finding Mr Height podcast ("The Female Friendships One")

❥