hi??

spotalike creates a playlist based on a song

magicplaylist  creates a playlist based on a song

dubolt  creates a playlist based on an artist

boilthefrog creates a playlist between any two artists 

predominant suggests you albums based on cover art color   

music-map  suggests similar artists

They have everything from Welsh Folk to Vaporwave to Afrofuturism and have lots of playlists focused on specfic countries and cultures. So if you wanna find a new native american hip hop artist, you can do that.

The Lost Sea, Tennessee

About 20,000 years ago, a giant Pleistocene jaguar ventured into a small opening in the mountain foothills, but soon found that this cave was far bigger than it bargained for. It lost its way in the dark, winding passageways, wandering for several days before eventually falling to its death in a narrow crevice, leaving behind its bones and perfectly preserved paw prints for us to find thousands of years later.

This was the first, but not the only, record of those who ventured into Craighead Caverns. Pottery, weapons and jewelry from the Cherokee people have been found in rooms up to a mile from the entrance, dating back at least a thousand years. Later, the caverns were used as a refrigerator for storing food in the summer, as a mine, a mushroom farm, and even as a dance hall. All throughout its history, there were legends of a great underground lake somewhere inside the vast caves, but no one knew where.

This changed in 1905, when a 13-year old boy was exploring the cave. Three hundred feet below the surface, he crawled through a narrow tunnel, and found himself standing in an enormous, half-submerged chasm. It was so large, in fact, that his light illuminated nothing but water. He began to throw balls of mud in an attempt to find the walls of the cavern, but he only heard splashing in response.

We now know that this lake is about four and a half acres, making it the largest underground lake in North America and the second largest in the world. But that’s only on the surface.

Diving explorations have revealed that this lake is seemingly bottomless. Beneath the ethereal water lies a series of caverns so deep that no end has been found. Divers have mapped about 1,500 feet in depth in just one of the main passageways. One diver, descending into a previously unknown chamber with a sonar device, hugged the wall and took readings all around him. There was nothing but more water in every direction.

but I can't not be bitter with the people who hurt me. I can't help but be angry because I trusted them and i opened up but they hurt me. I cared about them and was trying to help them be happy but they didn't seem to care.

Growth is a journey, kindness and love and forgiveness are hard.

Something my mom said once, she was quoting Buffy, is that forgiveness is an act of compassion. You don't forgive someone because they deserve it, you do it because they need it.

These people, they don't deserve your compassion. If you give it, you do so freely and without obligation.

I am a beacon of light, but no one has hurt me. Or, if they tried, it went right over my head. The kind of person you're talking about, who looks at the universe with love, who accepts past cruelty with equanimity, it's someone who has processed their trauma, accepted it, and moved past it. My trauma was not an individual person's doing, it wasn't reflected at an individual. I held bitterness towards my parents, myself, my society. I was angry I didn't get to be a kid, unafraid of people, unafraid of being in a room alone with someone. I was so frustrated and sad and I was grieving opportunities I had lost, opportunities to feel safe, to feel seen, to connect to people. I was also grieving myself. My little kid self who always felt so afraid, and thought there was something wrong with them.

I think bitterness is just,, a stage of healing. It's in between trauma and forgiveness, not that forgiveness is necessarily an end-goal. Again, it is not an obligation.

I wish I had a magical answer,, or something not so stereotypical. I met people who genuinely cared about me, about my boundaries and what I wanted, who encouraged me to ask for what I needed. And I knew it would be okay. I was honest, forthright, and I wore my heart on my sleeve every day. I told people I was afraid, I told people I was struggling, and they hugged me and held me hand and said "I love you." And i knew it would be okay. I gave most of my trust freely, I allowed people to see when I felt small, though I still held my fears close to my heart, and deep inside, where the logic can't reach, I was afraid. Not of everyone, not all the time. But enough.

I met this guy. He's sweet, and awkward, and he asks me about my boundaries. I know he cares about what I want. It actually feels comfy, to be around him.

In the past few months, I felt it shift a little, down where logic can't reach.

I'm passing people in the hallways, I'm making eye contact at the grocery store, and in my head, I go *that's a person!!*

Like a whole person. I know, deep down, that they have feelings. That they care and worry about things, they have people who love them and things they're afraid of. And today, I am okay.

I'm really that person now, who sees the goodness and acts on it. I'm still working on my fear, but. But now I can see the people💙

This rat doesn’t know anything, but it knows that sometimes snacks fall into its cage, and sometimes the floor shocks its feet.  It likes the snacks, and it hates the shocks.  It will tell you to do things that produce snacks, and it will tell you not to do things that produce shocks.

This little rat is not the only power inside your head, and it might not be the strongest, but it’s there and it has influence.

So pay attention to how you’re treating the little rat.

If every time you learn something new, you say to yourself “ugh, I’m so ignorant for not already knowing this,” you’re shocking the rat.  You’re teaching it to be afraid of learning new things, to associate it with embarrassment and self-criticism.

Remember to feed the rat instead.  Tell it “now I know, and that is good,” and let it eat its snack in peace.

If every time you take care of yourself and your home, you say to yourself “ugh, I never do this enough, and I’ll never get it right,” you’re shocking the rat.  You’re teaching the rat that it was safer when you didn’t try to take care of things.

Feed the rat instead.  Praise what you have done, forgive what you haven’t, so the rat can feel safe.

When the rat takes a step in the right direction, even if the step is too small or slow or not in quite the right direction, feed it.  Don’t shock it for being imperfect; it’ll only learn not to take any steps at all.  Feed it, and let it get bolder, and take bigger steps, and give it bigger rewards for those bigger steps.

She went to church and prayed for a child every Sunday, but no child came. She went to every midwife and wise woman for miles around, and followed all their advice, but no child came.

So at last, though she knew of the dangers, she drew her brown woolen shawl over her head and on Midsummer’s Eve she went out to the forest, to a certain clearing, and dropped a copper penny and a lock of her hair into the old well there, and she wished for a child.

“You know,” a voice said behind her, a low and cunning voice, a voice that had a coax and a wheedle and a sly laugh all mixed up in it together, “that there will be a price to pay later.”

She did not turn to look at the creature. She knew better. “I know it,” she said, still staring into the well. “And I also know that I may set conditions.”

“That is true,” the creature said, after a moment, and there was less laugh in its voice now. It wasn’t pleased that she knew that. “What condition do you set? A boy child? A lucky one?”

“That the child will come to no harm,” she said, lifting her head to stare into the woods. “Whether I succeed in paying your price, or passing your test, or not, the child will not suffer. It will not die, or be hurt, or cursed with ill luck or any other thing. No harm of any kind.”

“Ahhhhh.” The sound was long and low, between a sigh and a hum. “Yes. That is a fair condition. Whatever price there is, whatever test there is, it will be for you and you alone.” A long, slender hand extended into her sight, almost human save for the skin, as pale a green as a new leaf. The hand held a pear, ripe and sweet, though the pears were nowhere ripe yet. “Eat this,” the voice said, and she trembled with the effort of keeping her eyes straight ahead. “All of it, on your way home. Before you enter your own gate, plant the core of it beside the gate, where the ground is soft and rich. You will have what you ask for.”

i felt like there wasn’t enough polyam trio art memes so i decided to make my own <3 self indulgence be damned

❤️💛💙