Me looking at friend requests from 72 weeks ago:

“Fck is this?”

When we get out of the glass bottles of our own ego,

and when we escape like squirrels from turning in the cages of our personality

and get into the forest again,

we shall shiver with cold and fright

but things will happen to us

so that we don’t know ourselves.

Cool, unlying life will rush in,

and passion will make our bodies taut with power,

we shall stamp our feet with new power

and old things will fall down,

we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like burnt paper.

— D.H. Lawrence

In our darkest moments, we don't need solutions or advice. We simply crave the warmth of human connection. A gentle touch, a silent presence – these are the anchors that ground us when life's storms rage.

Don't try to fix me. Don't carry my burden or chase away my shadows. Instead, be the steady hand I can hold as I navigate my inner landscape. Sit with me in the quiet, bearing witness to my struggle without trying to change it.

My pain is my own to feel, my battles my own to fight. But your presence reminds me I'm not alone in this vast, sometimes terrifying world. It whispers that I'm worthy of love, even in my brokenness.

So when the night seems endless and I lose my way, will you simply be there? Not as a savior, but as a companion. Hold my hand until dawn breaks and I find my strength again.

Your silent support is the greatest gift you can offer. It's the love that helps me remember who I am, even when I've forgotten.

- Unknown

Some wars you have to fight alone.

One of the scariest enemies on earth are those people who pretend to be your friend.

Sometimes, I think I can't live any longer, and it's always in my head. I feel so devastated, but I couldn't talk about it with anyone. I just let the day pass as if every day was just a normal day for me—but it's not. Some days, I feel like I am dying inside. And most of the time, I feel like I am mentally and emotionally exhausted. But, of course, those things are not visible to others. Maybe they thought I was okay all along, but little did they know, I've been having a hard time fighting my silent battles alone.

I don't know how long it will take to be okay, but I'm getting tired of feeling devastated. Everything is slowly falling apart; I could feel it. And sometimes, I just want to stop fighting anymore. I feel so hopeless, and everything makes me sad. I thought it was just in my head, but it's all over my body and soul. I guess it's just so hard to live with this sadness and a broken heart.

— Shiori X

"I thought the earth remembered me,

she took me back so tenderly,

arranging her dark skirts, her pockets

full of lichens and seeds.

I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,

nothing between me and the white fire of the stars

but my thoughts and they floated light as moths

among the branches of the perfect trees.

All night I heard the small kingdoms

breathing around me, the insects,

and the birds who do their work in the darkness.

All night I rose and fell, as if in water,

grappling with a luminous doom. By morning

I had vanished at least a dozen times’

into something better.”

Mary Oliver

Harry Brioche - A Ray of Hope, 2023.

Cheers to the pain we choose to hide.🥹

Your average day could be someone else’s wildest dream. Never stop being grateful.

Revolution is not always revolutionary.

Me listening to someone vent and realizing they are the problem

Pause to admire nature’s masterpiece: puddles, #sunset, a game to remember.

#DiscoverTsinghua

📷 Yang Yuhan, Li Zhou

1910 woman in her cannabis garden with her cat.

A man who sacrifice his dreams for a woman ends up losing both.

Never forget those who helped you to achieve your goal.

Be obsessed with upgrading your life.

A heartfelt poem about overcoming the impact of past traumas, embracing emotional growth, and recognizing the deeper, often unseen, aspects of the human experience.

‘The Little Prince’

“And what, exactly, is that metaphorical thorn for you?”

“It's madness

to hate all roses

because you got scratched with one thorn,

to give up all dreams

because one of them didn't come true,

to give up all attempts

because one of them failed.

It's folly to condemn all your friends

because one has betrayed you,

to no longer believe in love

just because someone was unfaithful

or didn't love you back,

to throw away all your chances to be happy

because something went wrong.

There will always be another opportunity,

another friend,

another love,

a new strength.

For every end,

there is always a new beginning

And now here is my secret,

a very simple secret:

It is only with the heart

that one can see rightly;

what is essential is invisible to the eye."

~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Don't force anyone to be like you.

I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure. ~Oliver Sacks

(Book: Gratitude https://amzn.to/3MTLDeG [ad])

(Art: Photograph of Sacks by Lowell Handler)

I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure. ~Oliver Sacks

(Book: Gratitude https://amzn.to/3MTLDeG [ad])

(Art: Photograph of Sacks by Lowell Handler)