Acceptance isn’t passive.
It is active.
It is facing and contending.
Trying
I’m not perfect,
but I am trying.
Trying isn’t everything.
It doesn’t undo the mistakes I’ve made,
heal the people I’ve hurt,
or bring back the time I’ve wasted.
But it IS something.
It is not nothing.
Blood Into Gold
When I was a young teenager,
I was suicidal.
Now,
I work on a crisis hotline
helping others who are suicidal.
I wish I could go back in time
and show my younger self
what she would become.
“Look,” I’d say.
“I know how hard it is for you right now.
I know you feel lost, broken, and alone,
and that everything seems hopeless.
But you will make something
of this pain.
It won’t be for nothing.
Look how you’ll spin
the blood
into gold.”
Forgiveness XV
Forgiveness
is not the warm, fuzzy feeling
of love.
It is the calm, peaceful feeling
of acceptance.
Hillside Dancer
This poem is the sister poem to my last post, Minefield.
I want to view socializing
not as standing in a minefield,
but as dancing on a hillside.
Still not risk-free nor pain-free;
inherently unsteady.
Falls (rejections, awkward moments, etc.)
are inevitable.
But unlike missteps in a minefield,
they will never be fatal.
They will cause bruises
that hurt in the moment,
but heal with time.
The hillside dancer can move joyously
not because she faces no risks,
but because she views the risks realistically.
Minefield
Having social anxiety
is like being in a minefield.
You fear that one misstep
(i.e. one awkward moment,
one poorly constructed sentence,
one accidental overshare,
one missed cultural reference,
etc. etc. etc….)
would mean complete
social and emotional
annihilation.
So, naturally, you don’t move.
You just stand there,
paralyzed.
Diamonds
When you learn that true worth
doesn’t come from worldly things
you start to see the dirt
in things you used to see as diamonds
and you start to see the diamonds
in things you used to see as dirt
(Feb 2018)
Unlearning Societal Crap, part 5,329
Gather around, ladies.
Let’s say this together, in unison:
I am not “too much” for having emotions and opinions.
I am not “too much” for having emotions and opinions.
I AM NOT “TOO MUCH” FOR HAVING EMOTIONS AND OPINIONS.
(Nov. 2021)
To a Former College Professor
You told us to watch Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech
in which he talks about following our passions and trusting our winding journeys.
Then, you berated my classmate for wanting to be an actor.
Just as Martin Luther King viewed the White moderate as the greatest obstacle to justice,
I view people like you as the greatest obstacle to vulnerable kids’ fulfillment and happiness,
not to mention great scientific and artistic advancements to our world.
People like you,
who purport to love dreams
yet fight for the status quo.
(Nov. 2021)
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
George Bernard Shaw
lines
if i’d been formed
if i’d had shape
if i’d had lines
when we met
I Would Never
Have Let You
Hurt Me.
Musings and Music 