A personal archive of micro-essays, musings, and miscellany.

Romanticize the ordinary. Stop waiting for life to become impressive before you decide it's worth noticing. Delight in the butter melting into your toast. The steam on the bathroom mirror. The smell of basil in the grocery store. Acknowledge the satisfaction of a freshly folded pile of laundry. Put on music while you wash the dishes. Take the longer walk home because the trees are doing their beautiful and dramatic transformation once again. Notice when your tea becomes the perfect temperature for sipping. Look up at the moon, and not just when it's full or an eclipse. Let ordinary life be enough. Only then will you understand you were never waiting for a better life. You were learning how to pay attention.

Developing a "hard shell" is not the goal. To remain unbothered and unmoved is not the way. Let yourself feel things, to feel everything. And then release. Learn to let in the sting of something sharp, the weight of heavy, the sadness when there is pain. Sensitivity is not a character flaw, and crying is not a weakness. The key is to not let these thorny emotions take up residence. To treat them as worthy visitors into your home, but never a permanent roommate. Keep yourself open enough to actually experience your life, but disciplined enough not to drown in it. Feel the difficult emotion. Thank the difficult emotion for its lesson and memory. Then politely show it the door.

Let life turn you wild. Don’t fight the lessons, the annoyances, or the tragedies. Let them change you. Let them loosen your grip on being agreeable, impressive, or easy to explain. Go through what you go through and let it make you freer. Let it make you brave enough to be weird. Come out the other side strange, awake, and a little savage. Let life make you brave enough to be feral. Only then will you understand you were never meant to be tamed in the first place.