#19

on pressing onwards

dear you,

i hope you’re okay. i hope you’re eating and sleeping well and that you’re surrounding yourself with people who make you feel warm <3

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i went to a christmas market a few days ago at blue hour. i walked through the city listening to the new song by cigarettes after sex. lights were strewn over all the buildings and a bright and warm glow emanated from the coffee shops i passed. it had stopped raining at that point but a few droplets fell every now and then onto my face.

the smell of hot street food and chocolate filled the air. big puddles that had collected the day’s rain, reflected the darkening blue of the sky and the radiance of the lights. the streets were lined with alpine chalets with an array of produce and artisan gifts from local traders — with stalls of art, ceramics, jewelry, food, gifts, and preserves. there was laughter and music and singing.

it was so beautiful.

i went home that evening with so much love and warmth in my heart.

“in the dark times will there also be singing? yes, there will also be singing. about the dark times”

bertolt brecht, motto (trans. john willet)

i know things can be hard, especially as the weather gets colder. this time of the year can feel lonely and sad. but please know that there is always love and that things get better.

here are some gentle reminders for you to keep in your back pocket:

• there is so much joy in the world!!!! and so much love!!!! i promise you.

• to save your own life is not to make a momentous grandiose endeavor of bigness and bravery, it is about being in the present moment and holding your life in your warm, bare hands.

• small kindnesses are everything. there is always time to say something kind to someone, or even just smile at them when you are empty of everything else. in islam, removing something harmful from a path is a branch of faith. this means no day is wasted since there are always roads to clear the way for people. these small kindnesses save the world and make it a softer place.

• you need to set aside some time to stop and reflect every once in a while.

  

  

  dr ruth j simmons, bookstores: how to read more books in the golden age of content

• you are already whole and enough.

• it’s okay if you have wandered off the path, you’ll find your way back. it’s okay if you haven’t started yet, you can still catch up.

• linger on beautiful feelings. like the way your heart jumps when you see / hear a certain person, the way the sunset reflects on buildings, finishing a book that absorbed you fully, laughing so hard with someone that no noise comes out, the tiredness after a good day, or seeing all the lights go by in the window.

• life is about learning to love and learning to be loved.

  “there are no events but thoughts and the hearts hard turning, the heart’s slow learning where to love and whom. the rest is merely gossip, and tales for other times”

  annie dillard

• indulge in small pleasures like holding a hot drink, sitting on the porch with a loved one, making something from scratch, and sleeping in a warm home.

@soracities on tumblr

amantine lucile aurore dupin, the george sand-gustave flaubert letters (1870)

• you live alongside sweet and wonderful places and people.

• release yourself from the shackles of shame and fearing shame. when you live inside of it, everything is embarrassing and inadequate. be curious about it and face it with an open heart. you are alive.

• learning is a lifelong metamorphosis.

  

  

  hayao miyazaki

• pay attention to things around you more often like the colour of trees, the sound of silence, the way the clouds look throughout the day, the shadows the lights cast in your home, textures, the different colours and hues of the morning, birdsong, reflections in bodies of water, the movement of things in the wind like leaves, flags, hair and flowers.

• everything will be green again.

• change is a natural byproduct of growth and you shouldn’t blame, judge or be disappointed with your past self for making choices you made because you didn’t know better. you tried your best. practice compassionate self awareness so that you can forgive your past self for mistakes you made but also so you can thank your past self for getting you where you are today.

• this ask polly comment:

  

• remember that the sun will shine and hands will reach for other hands.

• the grief is never ending but so is the love.

• loneliness will not devour you.

i hope these little reminders can somewhat help you face the winter. if nothing else, i hope you can see how you are enough and whole, and that it’s important to be kind and loving. in fact, maybe that is why you were put on earth — to be tender at a time you were expected to be cruel and calloused.

sam sax, prayer for the mutilated world