Remember

Remember who you are.
Remember how far you’ve come.
Remember the stars
In all their brilliance –
In their constant companionship
On the darkest, coldest midnights.
Remember the moon,
How it glows for you.
To guide you,
To remind you,
That light is always present, 
Even when you cannot see it.
Remember the sun –
How it rises every single day, 
Of every single month,
Of every single year.
How it rises with promise,
And hope, and warmth.
These are just a few
Of a million quiet reminders
That you are not alone in this universe.
That your path holds purpose.
That your story is a work of art,
Still unfolding, and evolving,
And becoming more and more beautiful,
So remember who you are.
Remember how far you’ve come –
And how far you’ve yet to go.

In the Wild

My heart is as vast and complicated and strong as the forests and the mountains and the sea. So I have to be challenged. I have to grow. I have to breathe oxygen in ways I’ve never breathed before. Only then does my soul truly come alive – out there in the wild, in the wide, untamable unknown. 

All Those Small Moments

I love this quote from the film We Bought A Zoo where the character Benjamin Mee says: “You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.” As with anything as unpredictable as life, I’ve had moments where I’ve been brave before, and the story didn’t pan out how I thought it would. It’s easy to recoil after those moments and vow to never let your idealist heart be so recklessly bold again. But every good story has those moments. Every good story requires those moments. So maybe, if you keep putting yourself out there, keep taking one small step at a time, you’ll look back one day and realize it was all those small moments – of defeat, and of triumph – that got you where you are.

Foreigners

Perhaps we are all out there, moving, seeking, shape-shifting into the people we believe we need to be to find solidarity in this foreign world. To find belonging. To find something that feels real again. To find someone to walk with. To find happiness, as ephemeral and erratic as happiness is. We do this because we know joy can be found - in the wild, untamable great unknowns we venture into. In nature, and travel, and music, and art. We do this because no matter how disillusioned we become over time, a tiny unadulterated childlike portion of our soul still believes that home, intimacy, and authenticity are not entirely unattainable. Our hearts may break in the process of searching, but we can never truly let go of the ideal, the dream, or the most hopeful of hopes - that we were meant for relationship.

Finding You

Finding yourself isn't about not knowing who you are -- you already know exactly who you are.  No, finding yourself is about teaching yourself to believe something contrary to what you've been taught. We are taught to be afraid. To be guarded. To give up. We are taught that we aren't worthy, or beautiful, or loved. But these notions are all lies. Finding yourself isn't about being lost to who you are as a person -- it's about reaching out past the lies to the truth that's buried in your soul, and holding on to that truth with everything that's in you.

And although the journey of finding yourself is often a solo adventure, you will need friends to encourage you along the way -- to remind you that you are fierce when you feel small, to show you your inner brilliance when the sadness hides it from you. You deserve an incredible life. Find the energy to push back the sadness and give the proverbial middle finger to all the things that tell you to give up. Fight for yourself -- for your life. You only get one. One brief moment on this broad spectrum of time. In sadness, or happiness, in fulfillment, or longing -- this is it. Embrace it, with all it's possibilities and tragedies. And while tonight you may feel sadness, I hope you also feel hope -- hope for this journey, this journey of finding you.