sweet heavenly molasses

I love him because he isn’t scared of period talks. I love him because he respects my silence. I love him because we can talk for hours and he won’t spend half the time trying to get into my pants. Or rather, he kisses me halfway and waits, and waits, and waits. I love him because he knows I need coaxing to reveal my secrets, because he never gets mad when I tell him I can’t, because the only thing he wants to change about me is my self confidence, because he understands, and even when he doesn’t, he tries. I love him because I didn’t know a person who owed you nothing could care so much, who would stay up all night just to listen to you cry, who would run three miles in the dark to kiss your eyelids even though he hates the streets at night. I love him because he never forces me into anything. Everything I choose to do, I do in my own time. I love him because the first time I complained about cramps he kissed my forehead. He’s never made a period joke in his life.

Get some sleep. Don’t give advice. Take care of your teeth and gums. Don’t be afraid of anything beyond your control. Don’t be afraid, for instance, that the building will collapse as you sleep, or that someone you love will suddenly drop dead. Eat an orange every morning. Be friendly. It will help make you happy. Raise your pulse rate to 120 beats per minute for 20 straight minutes four or five times a week doing anything you enjoy. Hope for everything. Expect nothing. Take care of things close to home first. Straighten up your room before you save the world. Then save the world. Know that the desire to be perfect is probably the veiled expression of another desire—to be loved, perhaps, or not to die. Make eye contact with a tree. Be skeptical about all opinions, but try to see some value in each of them. . . . . . . . . . . . . Learn something every day. (Dzien dobre!) Be nice to people before they have a chance to behave badly. Don’t stay angry about anything for more than a week, but don’t forget what made you angry. Hold your anger out at arm’s length and look at it, as if it were a glass ball. Then add it to your glass ball collection. Be loyal. Wear comfortable shoes. . . . . . . . . . . . . Be kind to old people, even when they are obnoxious. When you become old, be kind to young people. Do not throw your cane at them when they call you Grandpa. They are your grandchildren! Live with an animal. Do not spend too much time with large groups of people. If you need help, ask for it. Cultivate good posture until it becomes natural. . . . . . . . . . . . . Plan your day so you never have to rush. . . . . . . . . . . . . Expect society to be defective. Then weep when you find that it is far more defective than you imagined. When you borrow something, return it in an even better condition. . . . . . . . . . . . . After dinner, wash the dishes. Calm down. Visit foreign countries, except those whose inhabitants have expressed a desire to kill you. . . . . . . . . . . . . Sing, every once in a while. Be on time, but if you are late do not give a detailed and lengthy excuse. Don’t be too self-critical or too self-congratulatory. Don’t think that progress exists. It doesn’t. Walk upstairs. . . . . . . . . . . . . Imagine what you would like to see happen, and then don’t do anything to make it impossible. . . . . . . . . . . . . Forgive your country every once in a while. If that is not possible, go to another one. If you feel tired, rest. Grow something. . . . . . . . . . . . . Appreciate simple pleasures, such as the pleasure of chewing, the pleasure of warm water running down your back, the pleasure of a cool breeze, the pleasure of falling asleep. . . . . . . . . . . . . Learn how to stretch your muscles. Stretch them every day. Don’t be depressed about growing older. It will make you feel even older. Which is depressing. Do one thing at a time. If you burn your finger, put it in cold water immediately. If you bang your finger with a hammer, hold your hand in the air for twenty minutes. You will be surprised by the curative powers of coldness and gravity. . . . . . . . . . . . . Be calm in a crisis. The more critical the situation, the calmer you should be. Enjoy sex, but don’t become obsessed with it. Except for brief periods in your adolescence, youth, middle age, and old age. Contemplate everything’s opposite. If you’re struck with the fear that you’ve swum out too far in the ocean, turn around and go back to the lifeboat. Keep your childish self alive. . . . . . . . . . . . . Cry every once in a while, but only when alone. Then appreciate how much better you feel. Don’t be embarrassed about feeling better. Do not inhale smoke. Take a deep breath. Do not smart off to a policeman. . . . . . . . . . . . . Be good. . . . . . . . . . . . . Remember beauty, which exists, and truth, which does not. Notice that the idea of truth is just as powerful as the idea of beauty. Stay out of jail. . . . . . . . . . . . . Be honest with yourself, diplomatic with others. Do not go crazy a lot. It’s a waste of time. Read and reread great books. . . . . . . . . . . . . In winter, before you go to bed, humidify your bedroom. . . . . . . . . . . . . Drink plenty of water. When asked what you would like to drink, say, ‘Water, please.’ . . . . . . . . . . . . Be kind to physical objects. Beginning at age forty, get a complete ‘physical’ every few years from a doctor you trust and feel comfortable with. . . . . . . . . . . . . Take out the trash. Love life. Use exact change. When there’s shooting in the street, don’t go near the window.

You don’t want to let go, but don’t want to be hurt, either. It’s not a great place to be but what can I tell you?

Healing is an uncomfortable and lonesome process. It’s why we pick our scabs, it’s why we drunk text our exes.

I think some people are just inexplicably bonded. Drawn by forces beyond their own comprehension, they have no choice but to gravitate toward one another. Destined by fate to keep crossing paths until they finally get it right.

We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.

I don’t need to be rich or have a fancy home. I just want to go to sleep at night knowing my labor had heart, I’ve loved fiercely and lived close enough to the edge that I can see the waves kiss the rocks.

Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet. —Carl Sagan (via kenobi-wan-obi)