The Revolution Is Upon Us

I don't know about you, but almost every day feels completely different than the one before. While some thoughts and emotions carry over through my dreamless slumber, others drift off. Far enough to leave me for now, far enough to leave me forever. The circumstances of our lives are existing on roller skates at this time and every day that the sun rises, who knows what it could bring with it. While a lot of what could come is unknown and quite intimidating, I feel there is also a section of the unknown that houses the original and authentic magic that comes along with ambiguity, ever so naturally. That can exist, even amongst the fear and the lack of information and answers. The fear and the excitement of the unknown can co-exist, it's just a matter of which one we give all the power to.

An idea that has been circulating in my universe for the last 24 hours is that of us entering a new stage of this part of our lives. While the first couple of weeks were filled with adrenaline, survival instincts, and basic human fears, I believe it is time for us to graduate naturally into a new state of temporary and permanent building. Life has dropped us all of somewhere for the time being, whether we like it or not. It is now our job to move from protecting and surviving into stabilizing and grounding. Our lives have been uprooted, rerouted, and unplugged in many unique, individual ways. While all of our subjective experiences may differ, slightly or greatly, the collective experience of upheaval and anxiety can unite us on a front that we may not have fully considered until the stress and urgency of the original moments begin to fade... until now.

Today we are deeper into our new ways of living. Keeping separate from others, without touch or physical connection with those outside of our household, keeping a distance from others but somehow zooming back in on our own lives. Some of us have more time to spend with our loved ones, others have more time to spend with themselves. With nature. With the parts of life that cannot be bought or franchised. I live alone which means my household consists of just me. I haven't had physical contact with anyone in over three weeks. For some, that may feel lonely. For others, it is medicinal. Sometimes I wish I could just be hugged, sometimes I am happy to be with just myself. There is no right or wrong way to process what has changed, what is missing, or what has been gained. It comes in moments and then is gone. Like the ebb and flow of the salty, seductive waves that I have turned to for healing my entire life, my body is back to its natural flow. It always has and especially now, belongs to just me. My energy belongs to just me. My life is just my own. I know I will be hugged and held again one day soon, but for now, I am grateful.

So what is this next stage? You know, the one that follows the humanistic, instinctual need to survive. The one that greets us after the first stage left us all frayed and burnt out. Teetering between sanity and total shattering. Hoarding TP and clearing out grocery stores in hours. This next stage is much more generous on our bodies, much lighter for our hearts, and a whole lot safer for our minds. It is the stage of building. While we may not be able to rebuild our world or our lives with a clear ending to this madness and destruction, it is safe to say that we have a temporary home between the ending and the beginning. We are living in the middle ground that any spiritual philosopher will preach to you as the answer to that which you have been asking for. I am not here to tell you how the middle ground will build you up or give you what you need to grow. Instead, I am here to introduce to you, the idea to build on this middle ground. To create a home here. To nest, making your life more comfortable. We are on a long journey that doesn't quite have a perfect ending in sight. We don't need to be filled with adrenaline-fueled panic anymore, but perhaps we do need to begin laying down a new foundation.

Life is asking us to settle into our new lives for the time being. It will take time for human health and society to rebound and the worst is still yet to come for my nation and community. With all of that in mind, I have been feeling incredibly inspired to nest. To care for my space and myself, but instead of doing it with the intention of just survival, I am shifting my intention to stabilization. While things are constantly changing and it is hard to build a solid foundation on moving ground, think like a boat. Build a structure for your life, build habits that will carry you through this time and possibly even directly into your future. Build a space you can begin to thrive in. Survival is a basic human nature but thriving is the nature of our soul. We need more than just survival for this length of time.

Building this new foundation for your life, taking into account the rocky, moving waters around you and the new way of doing things you have always done without thought, means being curious about how you can approach new ways of living and being. It means being innovative and open to trying new things. It means coming at certain struggles or ways of being with a new angle or a new approach entirely! It means taking what you have now, the way your life has shifted and the way that you must care for yourself in this moment, and building off of that. Building something sturdy, something sustainable, something grounding.

For me, that means finding new ways to entertain myself and exploring new ways of connecting to others. It means I can get rid of anything and everything that was centered around efficiency and replace it with sustainability. With new ways of living that are actually much more authentic and grounding for myself. The world is wounded and we are all being called to slow down. What does this mean for you in the long run? Because that is what we are in. A marathon. A marathon in which we do not know the distance but we must continue on the path, anyway! So we slow our pace and we find a new way of living in this middle space. A new way of rooting ourselves back into life, in our own way and in our own time. No rush. No bullshit. Just authenticity.

While we are given this time to slow down and care for ourselves and our life, we may still need to channel most of that energy into staying afloat. That is ABSOLUTELY OKAY!! If you are ready to settle into a different way of living, start with your habits. Start with the things that you don't have to do anymore and let them show you what you want to replace that time, space, and energy with in your life. Start with the things you have always wanted to do but never had the time. Let this new energy, this new way of living and being, give you the room to change what you focus your personal resources on. Your time, your energy, your love, etc. You are in control of your nest and your state of being. Do what you need to do to be ok and as soon as you feel ready, do want you want to do to feel alive. To feel content. To feel like yourself again.

May we discover the things in life, the people, experiences, habits, activities, etc. that bring us true joy! That help us bloom in this world and connect to our authentic selves. May we all feel safe enough to create a foundation. One that will carry us through this and onto the otherside. One that will usher us into the new life that is waiting for us when the sun rises once more. When we are ready to stand back up and keep going on this marathon journey, there is a golden opportunity for us to infuse our lives with what brings us the most joy and the most connection. We can start this now! We can begin to build a new life for ourselves, even if we are alone. Even if we haven't felt the touch of another human in weeks. Even if we are in self-isolation or quarantine. We can build the foundation that the rest of our lives can play off of. We can build a connection to ourselves and to life that society has overshadowed or disintegrated. We can do this now. Or at least, we can try.

The Tower and The Sun

There is a tarot card that exists, one of the major arcana, that perfectly sums up many parts of life at the moment that might otherwise be hard to grasp. Think of it as a metaphor for what is happening to us all, to our society and our world. It is The Tower. Some of you who are reading this may already be familiar with the card. You've felt it in previous parts of your life or maybe you are a reader and you have had to explain it to others, on occasion. The Tower card is probably one of the most daunting, misleading cards in the entire deck. Being a major arcana, it represents a huge part of your life. Something that is not, by any means, minuscule or temporary. Its effects can be felt so profoundly throughout your life, and through transformation, you are forever changed. At a molecular level.

The Tower card usually depicts a structure. That's right, you guessed it. It's a tower!!!! The tower is usually on fire, sometimes being struck by lightning. It is illustrated to look like a collapsing structure. Something you would watch happen almost in slow motion. Bricks are falling, huge chunks tearing off the side. Destruction. Annihilation. This structure is forever changed. No longer standing tall and sturdy, no longer shaped the same. Completely falling apart until nothing is left. Perhaps this is why the card is so very intimidating.

In life, structures crumble. It begins with cracks in the foundation. The longer the structure stands, the more exhausted it becomes. Especially if it is no longer suitable. Especially if there is a much better, stronger structure to be built in its place. When the foundation is not right, when the structure has lost its sturdiness in life and needs to be completely transformed, it must come down. The thing with this principle in life, it is incredibly difficult to not only realize when a structure needs to be demolished but also to tear it down yourself. That is where the storm comes in.

Lightning and thunder pound the structure. The wind and the rain weaken the already decrepit walls. Stone by stone, piece by piece, it pulverizes as it smashes into the earth. Back to where it came from. There isn't much one can do, once the tower begins to crack. We may try to mend the pieces, but eventually, it gets out of control. It was always out of our control, though. It was always going to fall. The structure you once knew, once lived in, once was sheltered by, is no more. It is rubble on the ground. Dust in the air. No way of being revived. Swept away. Only empty space left.

This empty space is your chance to transform. The structure that once stood there has fallen apart completely, and in that experience, revealed itself and all of its blunders that caused it to form cracks in the first place. The crashing down has left you shaken and in shock. Change is not easy. Destruction is not pretty. But it is beautiful. It is necessary. Now you are left with a clean slate, a white canvas, a fresh start. Transformation occurs. The decaying structure has been done away with and the sun comes out once more, shining its golden rays upon the bare land you now have before you. This is what your soul has asked for. This is your chance to build a brand new structure. Taking into account what you learned from the previous one, this tower can be bigger. It can be stronger, brighter, better. It can have more space for what you now know about yourself. It can create new memories and dreams, house more tools for your next adventures. This tower can be built like the last one, eventually wearing out once more and finding its final resting place on the ground in too many pieces. Or, it can be built with the wisdom you now have within you, the strength you have discovered, and the will to create something new. It can transform.

The Tower card is about destruction and endings, but it is also about remembering that we will rebuild eventually. It is about balancing the nonlinear experience of grieving what has fallen, what has changed, what has been lost, with the chance to transform and rebuild your structure. Your life, your experience, your relationship, your heart. It is about beginning the long and strenuous journey of clearing out, cleaning up, mourning, accepting, and getting to work on your next tower that shall stand in the place of what has been swept out from under you. It proves that grief and hope are the yin and the yang of our emotional experience. Grieving what we have lost, what has changed, what is no more, is something we cannot escape. It will happen, whether we fight it with all our might or welcome it with desperate, weak arms. Grieving needs to happen. It is how we work through and understand our emotional, mental, and spiritual response to what has fallen apart. It is how we show up for ourselves and care for ourselves. Things will always fall apart, to make space for what is to come. Hope is the other half of how we heal. It is how we stand up after sobbing on the floor. How we decide to carry on. It is how we paint the vision of what will be built in the space that has now become free. It is how we get to the place where we finally allow ourselves to dream up our new structure. Our structure has already begun building itself as soon as the old one hit the ground.

Destruction allows us to let go. Let go of control, of expectations, of plans and ideas that no longer serve our highest good. Clearing out the debris and mourning what has fallen allows us to grieve, to feel, to understand what moves through our body like waves in the ocean. Hope allows us to dream. Dreaming allows us to rebuild, eventually. All of these things come together to help us accept where we are at right now. To accept the things we cannot control. The changes we cannot stop from sweeping over our lives. The towers we cannot stop from crumbling. The structures we cannot stop from falling and dissolving back into the earth. We cannot change what our reality consists of, sometimes. Especially right now. There is nothing we can do to control the uncontrollable.

The Tower card has fallen right into our laps. Face up. Destruction staring directly into our eyes. The structures in our lives are disintegrating. Changing. Swaying. Threatening to collapse. I begged my tower to fall because I know that is the only way I will get to rebuild. Don't give up on your dreams, friends. Please! Your structures are not crashing down below you to take you down with it. They are transforming into dust like the Phoenix burns to ash. Giving you the space, the material, and the opportunity to build something new. To rise as someone new. This is not the time to flush your dreams and lose all hope. It is quite the opposite. The destruction of our structures is a clean and clear message: have hope for what is to come and have a dream in your back pocket. Once the dust has settled and the debris has been cleared, it will be time to pull out those blueprints. The ones you have been dreaming up but never understood how you would get there. How you could build it. You will soon have the space and the materials you need to build that dream tower. To build your life the way YOU want it to be. The way you may not have thought was possible until now. Until destruction birthed a new reality. One that needs all of us, all of the artists within us, to create our new worlds. Our new structures.

So dream on, but don't discount your grief. Like I said, grieving and hoping go hand in hand. The good in the bad and the bad in the good. The yin and the yang. You may tumble back and forth between the two, experiencing highs and lows. Moments of pure inspiration where you are filled with the desire to design what your new world can look like. Moments of absolute emotional destitution where you are filled with the pain and sorrow of what has been lost. Those moments may weigh heavily on you, convincing you to give in or give up. I promise you this, love: the hope will always, ALWAYS come back around. I know this because it is in our nature to fall apart and be reborn. It is what we do, over and over again. When you are feeling up to it, take some space to dream of what your future can hold, once the world is ready to rebuild. Dream of what makes your soul soar and your heart flutter with magic! Imagine where you could go with what you are learning about yourself and your world at this time. Your destiny is asking you to dream of a brighter day and to hold onto it tightly so that when it comes time for you to begin building a new world and a new self, you will have found out that just because your tower fell, your dreams were not destroyed in the rubble. No, not at all. Your dreams, my sweet friends, are being reborn. The sun will come out, the warm light will reflect off of your skin, shining and showing the path that lies before you. We are all being called to transform. Can you feel it?

The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back

Today I woke up feeling a myriad of complex emotions. I have been pacing around my space ever since dragging myself out of bed, trying to work through and understand what it is that I am feeling. That is when my fragile mind was greeted with the heavy realization that a lot of people are processing A LOT of emotions right now, and sometimes this impending feeling of doom that is looming over us all can create a vacuum where we attempt to escape to. The weight of the fear and experience as we slow dance into this unknown realm of humanity and illness is consuming. This is not something that we have experienced before, as a collective, and that makes it really easy for the shadow of fear and hopelessness to push down on us like the weight of a thousand lifetimes. We simply don't have much information or inspiration to look to for comfort or guidance. All we have is each other. Here. At this moment.

There is a certain existential dread that is seeping through the cracks in our foundations. Something as novel and uncertain as this experience can wholly take over our ability to process the things in our life that have changed recently or are changing in relation to all of this. The loss of a job, the loss of a partner, the loss of a loved one. Any difficult emotional experience that was already here or came attached, is putting that much more weight on us all to process our emotions and be okay during this time of fear.

That is precisely why I am sitting here, typing this out. Life is handing out too much, right now. There is a lot to process and it is more than likely triggering all of those places within you that have either been or will soon be, calling out for attention and healing. I have been spending the last 9 months or so, consciously digging into the wounds that sit below my surface and deep into my psyche. I have learned quite a bit from my journey so far, enough to know what some people might be experiencing right now, enough to understand how difficult this time will be for people emotionally, as they are thrown into the chaotic unknown. Here is what I understand and I hope it may help you understand what is going on within your emotional body, at this time. Or, at the very least, give you the support you may need to feel through some of the emotions that may come up for you.

Take a moment to bring your inner-child into your awareness. This idea of the part of you that was once totally and completely innocent and helpless. The part of you that was brought into this world with a clean slate. Already understanding big love, already being connected to your whole self, naturally feeling emotions as you learned how to process them. Learned from adults. Adults who were already carrying the weight of the world on their backs. You were young and curious, though, and most of the time, impervious to this weight. Completely blind to it. As you deserved to be. After all, you were only a child! It was not your responsibility to hold this weight. But that does not mean it didn't affect you.

As a defenseless, dependent child, you looked to those who were older and more established in this world, to shape your understanding. The things you experienced or felt but did not understand were most likely explained to you through how the adults and caregivers in your life responded to their own experiences and how those experiences affected their response to you. You absorbed what the models in your life showed you or gave you. The best they knew how to be, was handed to you as truth. This most likely resulted in some conditioning or even wounding that has been a part of your identity since these ever so formative years. These wounds or beliefs have been festering and gathering reinforcement for your own life experiences. These are the wounds that will surface right now.

When we are placed in the path of danger or destruction, when the structures in our life (or in our society) are being torn down, hastily and without remorse, our inner child is brought to the surface. Our defenseless, dependant, innocent self that has been hiding away, trying to feel safe in the adult world, is left unprotected and vulnerable to all that is collapsing around them. No matter how much work you have done, no matter how much soul searching and therapy, healing, and self-realization you have accomplished, this inner child is going to start screaming (if they haven't already). Screaming out in fear, in pain, in discomfort, and in a state of scary vulnerability. We may fall into old habits of survival or suppression, only they will be very loud and conscious at this time, making it harder to ignore them. Making it harder to go along with them and take them as wellness. This can be and is terrifying. Overwhelming. Destabilizing. Especially unfair, at a time when we are trying to survive and feel safe within ourselves, is this overpowering tantrum coming from our vulnerable self. But there is no such thing as coincidences and this is not one. Our vulnerable self needs us.

At any point in our lives, at any point in time, our firm grasp on this world and on our lives may become dismantled and lose its structure. Parts of what we have built as truth and as our identity/life will fall away. They will wither and die, crumble and fall, crash and burn. There is no path of avoidance, there is no detour. It is a part of life and usually happens in its own time, in the individual experience. Right now it is happening for the individual and it is happening for the collective. It is interconnected, making it very heavy, MAKING IT VERY LOUD! It is up to us all to step up and nurture our own inner children, right now. To take the parts of us that feel triggered, vulnerable and unsafe and to hold them close. To care for them. To allow them to express how they feel and then find ways to comfort and soothe them back to a state of rest. Like a screaming, hungry baby, our vulnerable, scared selves are begging to be heard and fed. To be held and to be loved. This is OUR job and only our job. No one else, no physical object, no alcoholic beverage, no pill or state of denial will do this for you. It will only give you a temporary feeling of safety and calmness. No, it is absolutely up to you to care for yourself at this time and to do what helps you feel safe. To do and expose yourself to what helps you feel calm and able to do this. Because you can, we all can!

*A note for the people who have lost someone that they love. Whether they died or they left, that wound will be exacerbated at this time. Grief will circle around and the feelings of loss and abandonment will be overpowering. It can inhibit your ability to care for yourself if you allow it. This person who is no longer in your life, no matter the reason, would want you to take care of yourself. Just because someone you love is absent or choosing to be absent from your life during these difficult and scary times, does not reflect a drop of what you deserve. You are loved, you are cared for. You deserve to feel safe, nurtured, and comfortable. Find the support you need to get yourself to a place where you can care for YOU because right now, that is all we can control. You are your most important priority and right now, you are all you need to focus on. Focus on taking care of yourself and the rest will come naturally. We are in this together, my friends! You are NEVER alone 💓

Take My Hand From Where You Are

I have been thinking about what to give to the world for a few days now. I know that words are all I have to give at the moment, but my words have been swallowed whole, recently, by my own challenges. Today I woke up with the need to inject some love into my community, into myself, and into the days ahead, as they loom above us. Through writing, I know that I can achieve this and through you reading it, I hope that it is felt.

Nothing is the same. Things are changing in every moment, just as they always are. However now, at this moment, those changes are weighing down on us quite heavily. As individuals and as a collective whole of humankind.

Life is like a stream of water flowing continuously. You are floating with the current. As each moment comes and goes you are in a new place, touching new droplets of water, laying your eyes on new terrain beside the riverbank. The current is gentle and soothing and there are people you love floating beside you. The current is always sending you forward and there isn't ever a true moment of being still. To find stillness, you must find it within yourself, as you float softly and lovingly downstream.

Somewhere in time, the current began to speed up. The waters became less gentle and the path in front of you called upon you for more thorough navigation. The land beside you began passing by faster and faster, almost unnoticed. Loved ones began floating at different speeds and in different directions, all though you are all still moving onward. You have always been moving, you have always been drifting. Each moment has always been flowing into the next one.

That is where we are at right now. Each moment, continuing to flow into the next one. The waves are becoming tumultuous. Riotous. Destabilizing. Throwing you around without warning. It is unclear at this time what the near future holds. It is hard to see what we are floating towards when we are so busy trying to stay afloat. I can tell you this, though. If you link up with those around you (six feet apart, of course) you have a better chance at forming a structure that can withstand the most chaotic of waters. When it comes to drifting quickly into the unknown and losing all sight of familiar land, plunging onward, into the water, is what keeps you sane. Having a community is what keeps you afloat.

As I plunge into this scary, strange, frigid water that was not part of my plan, I am reminded of the community around me that helps keep me afloat. I am reminded that everyone else is also slowly diving into the water around me. I am reminded that I know how to swim. That I know how to float. That I know how to call out for help when I need it. I am reminded that everything I have been through, everything I have learned, and everything I have experienced up until this very moment, has been in preparation for this. It has all built me up to be the adventurous, courageous, brave, strong, determined, fighter that I am. Although at times I do not feel these parts of me, I know that they exist because I have proof. I have cracks in my heart, bruises on my body, and stains on my soul that remind me of the mountains I have climbed. They remind me of my ever-surprising will to live and to love, with all I have.

I am a complete composite of every single moment in my life. So are you. Everything you have weathered and triumphed, everything you have discovered and lost. It. All. Matters. It makes you the exact version of yourself that you are here, right now, in this very moment. To all of my friends and all who have read this far, you are alive. You are ready for this. You are ready for whatever lies ahead in this river of life, even if you cannot see how it will turn out. You are capable and strong. You are loved and supported. You are brave and you are a part of this world. A part of a community. Whether you are surrounded or alone, you are a part of the whole that is this world and humankind. We were all floating together before, and now we are all swimming together. Support your neighbors. Check on your loved ones. Don't go through this alone. You don't have to and you shouldn't. Together, we can and will rise from this. But first, we must plunge, hand in hand, into the unknown.

We are all boats in the same stormy sea and because of this, we owe each other a terrible loyalty.

Breakdown at the Baggage Claim

We all carry around the baggage of life. It sticks with us even after we depart from difficulty and sometimes long after we arrive at our new destination. From one experience to the next, we add and discard some as we go. Some bags are big, heavy, and beaten up, while others are light, small, and fairly compact. The bags that are the most obvious, the blatant trauma that life drops on our doorstep from time to time, are easy to spot and hard to lug around. They are hard on the back and cry out for unpacking. Those are the bags that we are aware of. Those are the things that weigh us down until we finally chose to let them go. Those are the simple ones. 

What we might not always think about or consider, are the small little bags that are virtually weightless. The deceiving pouches that can be tucked somewhere and left for a very long time. Too long of a time. They are so malleable and can easily take the shape of whatever crevice you store them in. These are the bags that we forget we carry with us. The bags that don't weigh enough to beg for a complete release. The ones that fall behind the dresser or get kicked under the couch until things get moved around and they show up out of nowhere. Until we are ready to uncover them. Until it is time. These are the bags that need your attention most. These are the bags that, once discovered, unpacked, and fully removed from your space, can absolutely change your life and the way you experience it.

At some point in our lives, unfortunately, the majority of us (if not all of us) experience something horrific. Something tragic, something devastating, something violating. Something that steals our innocence, our magic in life, and closes us up like a Halloween store on November 1st. We can lose our sense of hope, our innate need to connect, to ourselves and to those we love. We can forget how to sing in the shower, lose interest in our hobbies, give up our favorite things in the world, all because we are lost. Lost trying to put back the pieces of our apparent shattering. So what happens when it is too much to bear? When the medication is not enough and the only way to survive, to continue to breathe and wake up every day, is to forget? What happens when you are too young and precious to understand and work through what has happened to you? When it is too heavy, you fear you will break if you try to hold the weight of it all? When your true self has to hide away for weeks, months, maybe even years, all so that you can continue on the path you intended before your world was stepped on? What happens when the only way you feel truly safe is to adopt a new way of living, a new way of being? One that wipes out everything you knew you were and everything you had hoped for in life and leaves you just surviving?

People do not talk about these things enough. There is not enough space in society for people to express these burdens naturally and comfortably. The world does not recognize the danger of walking around life, hollow and unforgiving. They do not understand what it does to them, how cruelly it shapes them. Not when there is too much to do and too much to catch up on, just to feel normal. How incredibly wrong it is to give up on all you hoped and loved, just to remain alive? How unfair! It does NOT have to be this way and it shouldn't. You should never give up on yourself in hopes of one day being ok. What about the strength and courage that truly lies within you? All of you! You are a fighter, a dreamer, a lover, and alive. Naturally. You shouldn't have to fight to be any of those things. You just are.

So how?? How can one possibly come back from the (for lack of a better word) fucked up, twisted, unfair ways life has affected them? Well, the answer lies in those teeny tiny bags. The ones that hide for years, undetected. Until a trigger is pulled. It all comes flooding back, like a tsunami wave inside of your body. Your nervous system implodes and your brain melts. You are left with the defense system of a toddler. Helpless and shaken to the core. But you are safe. You are NOT where you were when you were harmed or traumatized. You are not who you were when you didn't see it coming. It has changed you on a molecular level and now you can move. You can scream. You can cry and you can fight. You are safe and you are strong. 

Now you can hold these little bags, right in your very own hands. The ones that are so small, you are unable to understand how all of that pain, all of that fear, and all of that anger fits into them, all at once. But you see, that is why it had to explode. That is why it had to get your attention. You never would have seen it there, way too full, in that dark and forgotten corner, until something stabbed it and ripped it wide open. We may have cleared out the large, obvious luggage that came from a specific experience, but the tough ones, the ones that leave us with a scar or seven, always need more. They always have a couple of carry-ons that stow away for way longer than their respected flights. It takes time. It is our job to love ourselves and care for ourselves enough to find these bags through PTSD triggers, through resurfacing memories, through repeated experiences, through talk therapy, or even other kinds. It is our responsibility to nurture ourselves through the discovery and unpacking of these camouflaged containers. It is our right to free ourselves from them, but only we can do that. Only we can muster up the courage we already contain to finish clearing these bags out, once and for all until we can breathe the fresh air and see the light of day without these bags hanging over us like a vampirical shadow of subordinate suffering. Because they don't have to. We always have the choice to let go. 

When it comes down to finding true peace in life, it is absolutely possible. No matter what has happened to you or how this world has shaped you, it is always in your power to climb that mountain it created right in front of you. It is not easy. It is not quick. It is not simple, fun, or painless. In fact, it will hurt. It will suck. It will be a fight. Build up support around you, in every single direction. Find a community, a family, a friend. Take care of your body. Feed it. Nourish it. Move it. Rest it. Take care of your mind. Meditate. Journal. Talk to a professional or even just a voice recording app. Speaking out loud, allowing yourself to feel, seeking support when and where you need it, and making self-care and feeling safe a number one priority will take you very far in this journey of uncovering and healing. Consider me a friend in this journey of yours, standing with you in solidarity as you take on the injustices and the unfair rations of pain that have been bestowed upon you, just for being a human. I see you trying your hardest to breathe and to live, and with the right mindset and a lot of love, I promise you that we can all unpack these bags together and live. Together, we can heal and rise. A new life for ourselves and a brighter world for us to dream in. Don't give up, give it all you got. You are so worth it and it works, if you work it 💚