I don’t think a lot of people understand that no matter how progressive or well-read you are, there are always going to be moments in your life where somebody pushes back against something that’s so culturally ingrained you never even considered it before. And you’ll say “Huh, it never occurred to me to challenge this but you’re right,” and that doesn’t mean you were “morally toxic” before, it means you’re a non-omniscient human capable of growth.

“We try to preserve life—even when we know it has no chance of enduring its body. We feed it, keep it comfortable, bathe it, medicate it, caress it, even sing to it. We tend to these basic functions not because we are brave or selfless but because, like breath, it is the most fundamental act of our species: to sustain the body until time leaves it behind.”

a friendship compilation for @willowworbler​​ ♡ 

“Some people have a softness that draws water from the earth. Call it dream. Call it flight. The opening & closing of your eyelids, like sparrow wings beckoning the trees. The music of your bones, startling spring from the earth, the dazzle of your smile squeezing honey from the bees. You are kinder than the cruelest thing that’s ever been done to you. You are so good, bad people are ready to break every cruel word over their knee. You are so good, lazy people line up to be the coffee-mug at your mouth. The religious talk about the second coming & you talk your shadow into starlight. If you asked the clouds for shade the sky would split itself like apple. If you asked me to cut out my heart I would do it with my own knife.”

“Nothing ever ends poetically. It ends and we turn it into poetry. All that blood was never once beautiful. It was just red.”

when héloïse in portrait of a lady on fire asked ‘do all lovers feel as though they’re inventing something?’