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.

On Climbing

I would climb a thousand feet and a thousand more until my legs burned, and my lungs burst. Because nothing is as great a reminder that the world is bigger and brighter than we could ever imagine – that we shine when we give ourselves permission to breathe fully, to surrender recklessly, to soar exquisitely. 

Fierce

You are so much more
Than what you see,
Than what I see.

You are fierce.
You are a blazing, roaring fire
In a city of ashes,
Amidst a sea of flickering flames
Slowly surrendering to the shadows of night.

Refuse to let the wounds define you.
Refuse to let the wounded extinguish you.
Refuse to be tamed.
To dwindle down into a meagre, burnt-out coal.

Find a way to fuel your flame when no one else remembers to,
When no one else has the capacity to,
When your very being abandons you.

Because the world needs the light that burns within your soul.
The world needs the love that swells inside your bones.
The world needs you --
Your passion,
Your vision,
Your full and fathomless heart.

Brave

Choosing to be brave is never a mistake.
But sometimes it will cost you every drop of strength you had left in your being.
And when it does - when it leaves your heart cracked, stripped bare,
And your soul a desert of wasted love and wilted dreams,
You'll tell yourself that you were foolish.
Too idealistic. Too hopeful. Too bold.
You'll tell yourself to be silent next time.
You'll tell yourself it must be you.
But it was never you.
You, my dear one, are the brightest truest thing there ever was.

So write this on the chalkboard of your mind.
Scream it in the chambers of your heart.
Choosing to be brave is never a mistake.
Because in that choice, you honor yourself.
You honor humanity.
You honor life itself.
We were never meant to be vessels of unspoken words,
Of fear, of cowardice,
Of smothered hopes,
And stifled cries.

I know right now you feel trapped in the sadness,
In the fog of unanswered questions,
In the hauntings of self doubt,
But you are not trapped forever.
Because only in complete vulnerability can you ever be free.
And you set yourself free every single time you choose to speak up,
To step out,
To leap,
To love.

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.