"We all wear different chains. If we work at it enough, we can figure out how to fly with them. Because we’ll always have them. They’ll always hang by our wrists, but they don’t always have to anchor our bodies to the ground."
— LMV
"Thank you for being all that I need to challenge myself. Thank you for standing by me when I couldn’t be so sturdy. Thank you for holding me up when my head fell and eyes shifted downward. Thank you for looking at me with love and seeing a beauty I don’t comprehend. Thank you for just being. Thank you for showing me what it means to love someone unconditionally…while I learn more and more how to love myself, my capacity to love you slowly becomes absolutely, and beautifully infinite."
— LMV
"Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment and make it perfect."
— Unknown
"In separateness lies the world’s great misery, in compassion lies the world’s true strength."
— Buddha
"If we fear what we drink, it will poison us. If we fear what we eat, it will harm our bodies. If we fear the unknown, life will always daunt us. If we stop fearing all that renews us and all that we experience, all we have left is love, hope, and unwavering peace."
— LMV (thanks Christa)
Sometimes life throws the densest emotional and physical events at us all at once and leaves us without a clue of how to react or move forward. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one or a pet, a diagnosis, or even just a sudden change in plans, we all ride life’s roller coaster. The past two weeks have possibly been the most exhausting weeks of my life. I’ve felt as though I’ve been standing still in the middle of a tornado. I kept my back and hands stiff, eyes shut, and teeth barred. My feet stood firmly on the ground even though I felt like my body was being whirled around like a rag doll in the wind. What got me through was the support of my closest friends and family, and my own strength—the part of me that isn’t shaken or rattled by a storm; the part that felt strangely still even though everything was being thrown about around me. This was also the part of me that knew exactly the way to react and move forward naturally and with ease.
I knew that there was a reason I was going through all of it—there are no coincidences. I felt so strongly that what I would learn would be so immensely valuable to me for the rest of my life. Because I felt that way, the weight that most people would have expected me to feel was not nearly as heavy. However, if I had chosen to take a different perspective, my experience could have been completely horrible. I felt like it was in many moments before I realized those thoughts were from a source outside my own mind…the second that became clear, those intruding thoughts became as insignificant as dust. This is how we deal with things in life. In the moments when we feel some greater power is walking our feet straight onto a path we never imagined for ourselves, we react in the way that is natural for us. If we practice a lifestyle without anger or hate or regret, we don’t suddenly start feeling those things. We also won’t stop handling life’s curve balls with general ease if we have been intentionally learning how to do so through daily practice. If we believe down to our core that everything we go through is actually meant to be a positive experience—that in each significant moment we are alive, we are meant to learn and gain another piece of ourselves—we will prove to ourselves time and time again that we can take the most “negative” events and make them the most valuable, beautiful, and rewarding experiences because they make us exactly who we are.
~LMV
"That fear is not mine. That shame is not mine. That guilt is not mine. That hate is not mine. That judgment is not mine. Recognize what is theirs and what is yours, and only yours. This love is mine. This gift is a real gift…and it is mine."
— ~LMV
People say there’s a monster in the cage. You’ve been feeding it all this time, unaware that it doesn’t need much food. You know now if you feed it properly it’ll bring you no harm. There’s a monster in the cage. You are not a victim to it because it’s not a thing to fight. You can live next-door to it and even pet it every once in a while. There’s a monster in the cage. He will push you to take care of you. He will guide you to love yourself and your body. There’s a monster in the cage. He will make you a more kindhearted and truly understanding being. There’s a monster in the cage. You know now he will only bring you health, wisdom, balance, calm, and compassion. There’s a monster in the cage. And you know you have nothing to fear, because no matter what they say, you know he’s not really a monster at all.
~LMV
"Be in love with your life. Every minute of it."
— Jack Kerouac
"Everything—absolutely everything—is going to be alright. No matter what."
"I was sick— really sick
I was sleepy, but in so much pain
I stumbled to the bathroom and winced
Excruciating…one fist of my plaid shorts and one of my hair
Teeth clenched and head thrown back
And I collapsed
Into the sink
The world is dark and still for a few frantic moments
I am gone
Wake to my panicking body recklessly fighting
Back in the bright bathroom
I’m in the sink
Arms trembling, legs giving out
Hip bones digging into the drawers
Eyes rolling back
Gravity.
I’m trying
To swallow the knife in my body and stand up
It’s so sharp.
The world is dark and still for a few frantic moments
The cold metal faucet presses my temple
My head shoots up, blue-red eyes in the mirror
Nothing is still or sturdy
I am gone
I break something
Arms reaching, eyes rolling
Darkness, I am gone
Where are my feet? —my body
Help
Shoulders collapse and something else breaks
Everything is so hard, the knife
I’m on the floor
Somehow I opened the door and fell
The carpet on my forehead
I’m in a ball, head in my hands
His hand on my back
Panic floods his voice; it pools in my eyes
“Help”
He somehow gets me to my bed
Collapsing again
I slowly come back
I cry into his chest
Breathing out the sheer panic of
The moments I can remember
I’m okay now.
I can handle the pain now.
We can go back to sleep now."
— ~LMV: When you don’t replay the scary story of what happened in your mind, you can completely let go of the emotion of an experience and move on within minutes or even seconds.
