The text on this card might strike you as slightly sarcastic, but I assure you, it is not. I would urge you to think about a relationship you regretted losing, whether that was a family member, a friend, or a romantic interest or intimate partner. Now, go a little deeper, potentially to a place in your heart or your mind that is still a bit sore to the touch. (Don’t worry, we won’t be poking and prodding at it for long, perhaps just long enough to shed some much-needed light and healing on the subject — like a bandage you take off for the afternoon, before protectively wrapping it up again before bed.) Think, if you will, about this lost relationship, and consider the factors on your side of the street that contributed to its demise. Were you unreasonably demanding? Did you lie or manipulate circumstances to your advantage? Were you neglectful of the other person’s feelings, perhaps insisting that yours were more important? Or maybe you just suffered from a relatively common ailment: a fear of intimacy and vulnerability that prevented you from the kind of closeness the relationship deserved. Whatever the case may be, you can chalk it up to that most age-old limitation of the human condition: you tried, but you were massively imperfect. If that’s the case, congratulations! You are officially a perfectly imperfect human being. Now, say it out loud, if only for your cat or your plants of the interior of your car to witness: sorry I wasn’t perfect the first time around. Perhaps you will never get a shot at a second time around for this particular relationship. Perhaps you don’t even want one. But I would venture to guess that you could still benefit mightily from a dose of honest self-forgiveness. ❤️‍🔥—Y.B.D.