Hi,

Ciao Bella

What if the very life you’ve spent years feeling you needed to explain, justify, or apologize for is actually the life you were always meant to live?

And what if the love you’ve been looking for has been waiting for you to recognize it within yourself?

I’ve been having a bit of a love affair here in Florence, Italy.

And while this city certainly knows how to romance a woman, with its beautiful architecture, charming streets, candlelit restaurants, and couples walking hand in hand, this love affair has been something entirely different.

I’ve fallen in love with myself and the life I’ve chosen.

I know that may sound like a bold declaration, but something happened this week that made me realize just how far I’ve come.

Here I am at 48, single, never married, without children, living in Italy, working on a dream project, and creating a life that looks nothing like the one I was once told I was supposed to have.

And as I sat watching couples enjoying this beautiful city together, I realized there wasn’t a single part of me that felt less than.

I wasn’t wishing I were someone else or wondering why my life hadn’t turned out differently.

I was simply happy. In love with my life, the woman I’ve become, and everything I’ve chosen to create.

And what struck me most was remembering how many years I had spent feeling ashamed of the very things I was now celebrating.

For so long, I felt deficient because I wasn’t a mother, because I was single, because my life didn’t follow the traditional path. I spent years looking outside myself for acceptance and approval, believing that somehow, if I could just fit into the life everyone else seemed to be living, I would finally feel complete.

But sitting there in Florence, I realized something.

I was never missing anything. I was measuring my life against a set of rules that were never mine.

And as I continued walking through the city, taking in the beauty around me, I found myself wanting to do something I don’t think I’ve ever done quite like this before.

I wanted to thank myself.

I wanted to thank myself for not giving up on my dreams, even during the times I had no idea how they would come together.

I wanted to thank myself for not closing the doors on my business when I thought I was failing, when things weren’t working, and when walking away would have been so much easier.

I wanted to thank myself for not settling for a relationship simply because I felt lonely, judged, or afraid of what people might think.

For continuing to choose a life that felt true to me, even when it didn’t make sense to anyone else.

For choosing to heal, to grow, to think differently, and to keep becoming the woman I knew I was capable of being.

For recognizing that I am the author of my own book of life, and that if I don’t like something about the story I’m living, I have the power to change it.

But more than anything, I wanted to thank myself for no longer abandoning myself in pursuit of being loved, chosen, or accepted by someone else.

And I think that’s what made this moment so beautiful.

I wasn’t celebrating a relationship, a wedding, a house, or any of the traditional milestones I’d once believed would define my happiness.

I was celebrating me.

The woman who kept going. Who kept believing. Who continued choosing herself, even when it would have been easier to live by someone else’s rules.

And somewhere along the way, I realized that home wasn’t necessarily a place, a structure, or something I needed another person to create with me.

Home was something I had finally found within myself.

The peace I feel in my own company. The love that surrounds me. The work I get to do. The freedom to live by my design.

And while I absolutely welcome love and partnership into my life, I no longer see either as something that will finally make me whole.

Because the truth is, the love of my life is me.

I’m the one person who will be with me through every chapter, every decision, every reinvention, and every version of the woman I become.

And when I look back on this beautiful life, I want to know that I lived it. That I honored myself, pursued my dreams, and didn’t spend my years trying to fit into a life someone else decided I should want.

So, as you’re sitting there with your coffee this Sunday morning, I wonder if there’s something in your own life you’ve been judging simply because it doesn’t look the way you thought it would.

Something you’ve been carrying shame around, when perhaps there’s nothing to be ashamed of at all.

And I wonder what would happen if you stopped looking at your life through the eyes of everyone else and started seeing it through your own.

Because here is what I’ve come to know.

You don’t have to live a traditional life to live an extraordinary one.

And you don’t have to wait for someone else to choose you before you can fall madly in love with the life you’ve chosen.

I came to Florence to live a dream.

And somewhere along these beautiful Italian streets, I realized that one of the greatest love stories of my life has been the one I’ve been writing with myself all along.

I’d love to hear from you, bella.

What would you thank yourself for today?

Hit reply and tell me. I have a feeling there are so many beautiful stories waiting to be celebrated.

Remember, rewrite the rules.

All my love,

Melissa Kathryn