cheryl strayed always

I’ll never know, 
and neither will you, 
of the life you don’t choose. 
We’ll only know that whatever that sister life was, 
it was important 
and beautiful 
and not ours. 
It was the ghost ship that didn’t carry us.  
There’s nothing to do but salute it from the shore.

brian andreas. always.

i was waiting for such a long time, she said
i thought you forgot

it's hard to forget, i said,
when there is such an empty space when you are gone

compartments of need

It’s like we’ve got these cups in our life. 
One for family, and one for friends, and one for work, and one for a love—
and any one of these cups can be so full that it’s literally running over, 
but the part that runneth over doesn’t runneth over into any of the other cups. 
Excess work-juice doesn’t fill up an empty family cup, 
any more than an abundance of friendships can fill up an empty love cup.  
Which is maddening and a little unfair, but probably, just as it should be.


-meg fee

brian andreas

I find myself dreaming
about the you 
who sits there quietly
waiting to come out
when someone is ready to see her.

the things

how was your day?

"But I'd be too tired to say all of that. So I'd just cry, or yell, or smile and say "fine," and then run to Target to wander aisles aimlessly, because that's all I ever really wanted. But I'd be a little sad because love is about really being seen and known and I wasn't being seen or known then. Everything was really hard to explain. It made me lonely."

Allman Brown & Liz Lawrence

And I, will hold you tight, like the moon

in the arms of the sky

And I, will keep you warm, I will build a fire in this house

And I, I'll wrap myself around your heart

I'll be the walls of his heart

And I, I'll keep the light on, to call you back home

iain thomas

"All the coldest, hardest people you meet were once as soft as water.
And that's the tragedy of living".

my deepest, darkest secret

i'm terrified that one day you're going to wake up and realize that i am not the things you imagined me to be. that you had hoped i could be. that you had believed me to be. that i am not special or unique, for you, in any way. that i only simply love you. and that you will hate me for loving you. and i'm terrified because i know the first parts are true. there is nothing very special or unique or awe-worthy. but i will love you. i will love you even when there is nothing else i can do or anything else i can give. and me loving you may be the only thing i can give. but i will give it all.

i've been hated for loving before. i've been left because of it.
i hope you can tolerate being loved.
i need someone to tolerate it.

and i hope you can love me.

child

The voices in my head are shadows, shadows

She comes to me, to tell me what they're after

Says it ain't the end boy but you best be careful, careful

Might catch your tail end in a circle, circle

The ocean how she moves in ripples, ripples

In flashing lights I swear she wore old film then the color bleeds and she

becomes an angel, angel...

i woke up and it was gone

i had been living in a blustery, snowy, wintery world over the last week. the last week of haze and rush and drink and movement. the snow came in fiercely and it stayed. it was my favorite night. but, also, it stayed. today i wake up - monday - the real return to the "real" world - and the streets are blank. dark brown and stained from the rain that is snow's dichotomous lesser. there is less magic today for the lover of winter.

what matters

What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand….

What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who’s up and who’s down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say.

It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters.

---dave eggars