Diligence

How People Occupy Space (Body Language) 

˙⋆✮ Leaning in slightly when genuinely interested without realizing it

˙⋆✮ The way someone physically turns their body away mid-conversation

˙⋆✮ Crossing arms not out of coldness but because it feels safer

˙⋆✮ That one person who always finds the wall to stand against at parties

˙⋆✮ Mirroring someone's posture when comfortable with them

˙⋆✮ The slow backward step when a conversation goes on too long

˙⋆✮ Tilting the head when something doesn't add up

˙⋆✮ Sitting on the very edge of a chair when ready to leave

˙⋆✮ The way someone's feet point toward whoever they actually like in a group

˙⋆✮ Leaning back and crossing ankles to signal comfort and ownership of space

˙⋆✮ The unconscious open-palm gesture when telling the truth

˙⋆✮ Standing slightly outside the circle and never fully entering it

˙⋆✮ The way someone physically shrinks in a loud argument

˙⋆✮ Turning the whole body to listen rather than just the head

˙⋆✮ That very specific stillness that means someone is about to cry

˙⋆✮ Raising shoulders toward ears when stressed without knowing it

˙⋆✮ The way laughter changes someone's whole skeleton

˙⋆✮ Touching the face when lying or searching for an answer

˙⋆✮ Saying "no worries!" to someone who just genuinely hurt them

˙⋆✮ Replaying a conversation from three years ago at 2am with full emotional clarity

˙⋆✮ Sending a text and then dreading the response before it even comes

˙⋆✮ Over-explaining to the point where the apology needs its own apology

˙⋆✮ Asking if everything is okay so many times it becomes the problem

˙⋆✮ Interpreting a slow reply as the end of an entire relationship

˙⋆✮ Preparing for worst case scenarios so thoroughly they almost will them into existence

˙⋆✮ The need to fix the tension in a room even when they didn't cause it

˙⋆✮ Canceling plans with relief and then feeling guilty about the relief

˙⋆✮ Catastrophizing in total silence while appearing completely fine

˙⋆✮ Being so afraid of being a burden they become one in a different way

˙⋆✮ Rehearsing phone calls before making them including possible tangents

˙⋆✮ Saying yes to things weeks away and panicking as they approach

˙⋆✮ Needing reassurance and then not believing it when it comes

˙⋆✮ The spiral that starts with one small thing and ends somewhere completely unrelated

˙⋆✮ Apologizing for apologizing too much and meaning both sincerely

˙⋆✮ Reading tone into texts that have no tone because text has no tone

˙⋆✮ Being exhausted by their own brain and having nowhere to put that

˙⋆✮ The performance of calm so convincing even they almost believe it

Cartonnage Funerary Assemblage

In the Ptolemaic Period, separate cartonnage pieces replaced the full-body cartonnage covering such as the one used with the Mummy of the Priest, Hor nearby. Yet the same series of symbols were used, such as the scarab beetle (a symbol of rebirth), the Four Sons of Horus, Anubis, sun disks, and gold leaf (a reference to the gods, who were believed to have gold skin).

The lower part of the inscription shows a number of dots marking the place where the owner’s name would be filled in, indicating that such objects were mass-produced for the market. The use of gold in prefabricated funeral equipment suggests a large, wealthy population in Ptolemaic Egypt eager for such products.

Ptolemaic Period, ca. 305-30 BC.

₊⊹ "Go ahead. Do it. And then look at the faces of everyone watching and ask yourself what they just learned."

₊⊹ "I already won. Three moves ago. You're still catching up."

₊⊹ "I built this to run without me. You understand that right? Locking me up is decorative."

₊⊹ "Every time you beat me something worse takes my place because I was actually the moderate position. Think about that tonight."

₊⊹ "You want to know the best part? I wanted you to stop me here. Right here. Exactly like this."

₊⊹ "Did you really think this was the plan? This was what I needed you to think was the plan."

₊⊹ "Take the win. You've earned it. I'll be here when you realize what it cost."

˙⋆✮ Apologizing and immediately doing the thing again

˙⋆✮ Giving advice they never actually follow themselves

˙⋆✮ Knowing they're overreacting and doing it anyway

˙⋆✮ The inability to leave a conversation without one more thing

˙⋆✮ Turning every compliment into an argument

˙⋆✮ Asking for opinions and then resenting the ones given

˙⋆✮ Needing to be the one who cares less ˙

⋆✮ Starting projects with obsessive energy and abandoning them quietly

˙⋆✮ Remembering every wrong done to them in stunning detail

˙⋆✮ Making jokes at the exact moment sincerity was needed

˙⋆✮ Saying they're fine and being genuinely furious when believed

˙⋆✮ Promising to be on time while fully knowing they won't be

˙⋆✮ Bringing up old arguments disguised as new observations

˙⋆✮ Liking people more in their absence than their presence

˙⋆✮ Fixing other people's problems to avoid their own

˙⋆✮ Being completely incapable of asking for help directly

˙⋆✮ Catastrophizing privately and performing calm publicly

˙⋆✮ Holding people to standards they don't apply to themselves

˙⋆✮ Falling for the same type of person and calling it bad luck

L. Frank Baum's second Oz novel, The Marvelous Land of Oz, was published on June 5, 1904. John R. Neill illustrated this novel, taking over from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz illustrator WW Denslow, who had fallen out with Baum due to creative disagreements over a stage production of The Wizard of Oz.

⋆˚✿˖° "You don't have to be okay right now. You don't have to be anything right now."

⋆˚✿˖° "When did you last eat. And water doesn't count and neither does coffee."

⋆˚✿˖° "I've got you. You're safe. I've got you."

⋆˚✿˖° "Stop apologizing for needing things. Stop it right now."

⋆˚✿˖° "You called me at 2am and I came. That's not something I did out of obligation. I want you to understand that."

⋆˚✿˖° "Lay down. I'm not asking."

⋆˚✿˖° "You've been holding this alone for how long. How long have you been holding this alone."

⋆˚✿˖° "I'm going to sit right here. You don't have to talk. I'm just going to be here."

⋆˚✿˖° "When did taking care of yourself become something you had to earn."

⋆˚✿˖° ⟢ "You're shaking." - "I'm fine." - "You're shaking and you've been crying and you're not fine and that's okay."

⋆˚✿˖° "I'm not leaving. You can ask me to leave and I still won't. You're stuck with me tonight."

⋆˚✿˖° "Has anyone ever just — taken care of you. Without needing something back." - "..." - "That's what I thought. Come here."

⋆˚✿˖° "You scared me. I need you to know you scared me and I need you to never do that again."

⋆˚✿˖° "I heated up the leftovers. You're going to eat them. We can fight about everything else tomorrow."

⋆˚✿˖° "Stop being brave for one second. Just one second. It's just me."

⋆˚✿˖° "I noticed you weren't okay three weeks ago. I've been trying to figure out how to say something."

⋆˚✿˖° "You don't have to explain it. You don't owe me an explanation. Just tell me what you need."

⋆˚✿˖° "Nobody should have to go through that. I know you did. I'm so sorry you did."

⋆˚✿˖° "Close your eyes. I'll stay until you fall asleep. I'll be here when you wake up."

⋆˚✿˖° "You keep saying you're fine and your hands keep shaking and I need you to pick one."

⋆˚✿˖° "I made your tea the way you like it." - "You remembered." - "I remember everything about you."

⋆˚✿˖° "You were there for me when I had nothing. Did you really think I wasn't going to show up for you."

american starwort: welcome to a stranger

arbor vitæ: live for me

austrian rose: thou art all that is lovely

belvedere: i declare against you

branch of currants: you please all

campion rose: only deserve my love

coltsfoot: justice shall be done

currant: thy frown will kill me

daily rose: thy smile i aspire to

four-leaved clover: be mine

hemlock: you will be my death

honeysuckle: generous and devoted affection

ice plant: your looks freeze me

japan rose: beauty is your only attraction

justicia: the perfection of female loveliness

love lies bleeding: hopeless, not heartless

maiden blush rose: if you love me, you will find out

mourning bride: i have lost all

peach blossom: i am your captive

purple lilac: first emotions of love

spindle tree: your charms are engraven on my heart

tussilage: justice shall be done to you

vernal grass: poor, but happy

volkamenia: may you be happy

white rose (dried): death preferable to loss of innocence

yellow rose: decrease of love

zinnia: thoughts of absent friends