Free Spirits

Somehow the world would have us think that normal is what we should be. And if we aren’t normal, then that should be our goal. But perhaps your inability to feel like you truly belong is the tool that drives you forward – to seek after the dreams in your heart, as elusive as they appear to be at times.

We complicate so many things unnecessarily. Following your heart is perhaps the riskiest venture you’ll ever undertake because your mind wants to tell you otherwise – to talk you out of the crazy ideas and notions your heart is telling you. The mind is the logic, but the heart is the dreamer in all of us.

And though you may feel like a dreamer stuck in a world barraging you with the message that you must conform to normality, remember that free spirits don’t conform. Free spirits have always and will always make their own path. People are afraid to change – afraid of change. But you – you are the game changer. You are the one meant to seek new adventures and experiences. To keep moving forward. To grow. To challenge yourself and others. And you do that by being different. By being bold. By being you.

It’s ok to dream. 

It’s ok to believe in love, and to fight for it. 

It’s ok to feel restless, because perhaps that restlessness is your heart trying to move your feet down a path you wouldn’t have otherwise gone down if you were content and comfortable and safe. 

Embrace the free spirit that you are. Embrace your wildness. Embrace yourself, and be free.
 

Facing Tomorrow

We are all flawed, imperfect, broken creatures.
You worry that your honesty about your struggles will scare someone away – that removing your mask and exposing your vulnerabilities and the things that aren’t so pretty or shiny will be too much for someone to hear, or to bear.
Hard subjects are frightening to those who refuse to be open.
Some people will be your friend for a lifetime.
Others, for a moment. 
And some will leave, and you will always wonder why.
But you can't doubt yourself.
You can't beat yourself up.
You can’t hide yourself away or struggle alone.
Community is found in vulnerability.
Writing, speaking, and sharing your story helps you heal and brings hope to those who are struggling just like you are. 
Just as the sun sets each day, it rises – and with it, comes hope.
And sometimes hope is all you need to face another tomorrow.

Firefly

You thought you were so put together, and yet so easily you come undone. You have good days and bad days. Some days, you have more bad than good. But spring will come. Summer will come. You will feel warmth again. Night will fade, and you will stand in the sun. Light will return, illuminating your veins. You just have to love yourself until it does. You have to love yourself in the night. I know that when you see your reflection, you don’t recognize yourself. But that’s okay. Because I still see you. And you are brighter than you realize. Even when your deep sadness and your exquisite pain paint shadows on your already worn face, the world sees something different. I see something different. I see how you glow and glow, more intimately and more intensely as you bare your soul and clench your teeth and hold on for dear life. I see spirit. And beauty. And grit. I see a firefly, both hesitant and radiant.

Restlessness

Maybe restlessness is just who I am and who I’ll always be. I guess when it comes down to it, I just want to be somewhere that feels right – somewhere that feels like it could be home. When I think about that place, I imagine warmth. I imagine fireplaces and blankets on a bitter cold night.

I love my independence, but I've lived and traveled enough to know that it’s love – it’s people, connection, friendship – that ties you to a place. We all need someone. This is the human condition. As much as I acknowledge that part of my restlessness stems from wandering through life alone, it’s not something I can really control, or even want to. I am a searcher, yes; but I’m not only searching for someone, I'm searching for meaning, and beauty, and understanding.

So you see, choosing a place to belong isn’t so simple for someone like me. I don’t want to be put in a box. I need to be able to float around out there in the great unknown, like the restless soul that I am. I just need someone to throw me a line every now and then. To bring me back down to earth when my wandering heart needs rest. To offer me a net I can fall into when I need to come home. Wherever home is.

Virtual Reality

We send messages instead of letters. 
We comment instead of call. 
We have unlimited minutes and smartphone apps that allow us to connect for free from anywhere in the world, and yet we struggle to make dinner plans, to hear each other’s voices.
We type hundreds of one-liner birthday wishes instead of writing a heartfelt card. 
We document our moments through perfectly constructed photos. 
We craft our words carefully so our posts are clever, funny, literary snapshots of our inner monologue. 

Then we anxiously wonder – as each day, month, year passes – why we haven’t accomplished that goal, or bought that house, or gone on that vacation, or had that amazing thing happen to us. 
We barrage ourselves with self-doubt and self-loathing at our incompetence to succeed in these seemingly normal occurrences and occasions.
We resolve to the idea that we must not be good enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, funny enough, dedicated enough, rich enough, lucky enough.
We wrack our brains looking for the most logical reason to explain why our lives aren’t as interesting as everyone else’s.

But this world is convenient, we say.
We are busy. Rundown. Over-scheduled.
We may sacrifice authentic connection, but at least we’re still connected.
But are we really?
When we focus so much on the blanket promotion of our wins and our successes, on the curated snippets of our story but only the snippets worthy of our virtual walls, we've missed something.
We are missing something.
 
And I don’t want to miss it.
I don’t want to miss these moments.
I don’t want to miss you when you cross my path.
I want to share my story and share in yours.
I want to see your words.
I want to see them dance across my mind when I hear them in your voice or read them on the pages of an old fashioned, handwritten letter – the kind the mailman delivers to the mailbox at the end of the driveway.
I want to see your face, not in a recent profile photo, but at the opposite end of the table behind a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.

We can share with each other. We can be authentic.
But we have to truly reach out beyond our screens.
We have to connect – not in virtual reality, but in the real world.