Live Chic

You have to tell people how you feel because you never know when it’s your last chance. You never know when circumstances are just about to alter or the tide is just about to change or the door that is open to you now is about to slam itself shut. You have to take the chances that you have while you have them, because every window of opportunity is held in place by a time frame and you can’t let it pass. You cannot resign yourself to staring bleakly out of it, wondering, for the rest of your life. You have to tell people how you feel because it matters like hell. Because there are so many things in life that don’t what you’re wearing and where you’re living and whichever petty problems plague your awareness day in and day out. You have to tell people how you feel because when your time on earth draws to a close and you look back over everything that counted, it is always going to be about people. Who you held onto. Who you grew with. Who changed you and challenged you and inspired you, when everything around you was falling apart. You have to tell people how you feel, because it’s not just about them feeling the same thing back. Because harnessing mutual love is a wonderful side effect of courage, but it’s not the end goal. The end goal is becoming a badass and a risk-taker. The end goal is living authentically. The end goal is becoming someone who can meet their own gaze in the mirror each morning, because you’re unafraid to fight for your own happiness. You have to tell people how you feel because it’s the only way to live out your truth. And at the end of the day, that might be the most important thing you ever learn to do.

Take a moment to understand that not everyone is meant to love you, and that’s perfectly okay. You are not a one size fits all option meant for hundreds of grasping hands searching for a quick fix. You weren’t meant to stretch yourself thin to meet everyone’s standards, skating on thin ice. You were meant to love and be loved, by people who recognize your worth, not someone trying to create it. And until that time comes, learn to love yourself first. You must do this, and you must do this without hesitancy or doubt. Because how can anyone else ever see you are worth it if you keep telling them you’re not? How can anyone love you if you tell them you aren’t worth loving? They can’t. So please, love yourself. Love every single part and every single fabric that’s woven you together. One day, you’ll find someone who will step up and love you exactly as you are.

Love is painful and confounding and exhausting and frustrating and overwhelmingly awesome. It leads us to places we treasure, and to places we abhor. It brings out the absolute best and worst in us. Love demands navigating sharp curves, steep hills, and some impossibly giant potholes. The terrain is uneven, and that’s okay. If it were simple or easy, it wouldn’t be so damn hard to find, nurture, or let go of

To the girl who does not know her worth, I have seen you be selfless so many times, giving all your love to the ones closest to you, and even to strangers. I have seen you smile on your worst days, and find the strength to keep on giving, even when you can barely lift your head. You are incredibly beautiful, inside and out, never giving up on the ones you love, even when you’re exhausted by the world. I watch you, day after day, pick up the chipped pieces of yourself and stick them together with a tape that’s barely strong enough to get you through the next night. Yet you continue. You give your heart to people who don’t see your beauty through the brokenness. You console and comfort friends who do not understand the power of your care, your forgiveness. You surround yourself with people that you need to fix, with people that you must work to love. But even when you fall into your bed at the end of each night, you don’t see what an incredible difference you’ve made. You somehow turn everything back to yourself, and wonder if you’ll ever be good enough. Well you are good enough. You’re more than enough. I wish I could tell you that you are noticed. That the wonderful, little ways you brighten people’s lives are important. Are valued. I wish I could tell you to keep loving, even when the world looks the other way. I wish I could tell you that sometimes you give your heart to people who don’t deserve it, in love or in friendship, and it becomes a hard lesson learned. I wish I could tell you that you must never accept a half-love, a love that is nowhere near the amount you give. I wish I could tell you that life will be so hard, but you must keep on living. That you must find reasons to celebrate, to pull strength, to stay pure, even when people hurt you. I wish I could tell you that you matter. And you are loved.

To all you lost and hurting souls out there in the universe, I know you are aching. I know that with each bone in your body, there is twice as much pain in your heart that keeps pouring out of you. And no matter what you do, that pain keeps overwhelming you and it keeps shaking you uncontrollably. This deep pain keeps mocking you, and judging you for each tear that drops down your cheeks. It is a monster of your past and present, a monster that is trying to destroy your glorious heart. But you can’t let it win. I know that this pain and depression can be so debilitating. And it will make you want to do things that you’ve never even thought about before. You will think you’re going crazy. And you will think that maybe it’s easier for the monster to win. Maybe it’s easier just to surrender and let it take you down. Sweet soul, this pain will not be permanently etched into your heart. It won’t. I hope you know that you are loved and that someone on this earth adores you. I hope you know that this pain will someday turn into relief and you will be free from it all. I hope you know that this hurt will turn into scars, which will turn into strength. Feeling lost and scared is part of this journey, and we all will feel this way at some point in our lifetime. But, this is only a small portion of your life. This is just a tiny fraction of it. We have so much time left to live that will be gloriously filled with years of light and love. Don’t let the pain from today decide your fate for tomorrow. And don’t let the monster run you over like it always says it would do. You’re stronger than you think, I can promise you that. You are also much braver than you even realize. I hope you remember that you were brought into this earth because somebody wanted you. And somebody still wants you here. You’re a miracle gift to the world. And my dear, you are loved.

Date the person who makes you want to put your phone away while you’re together, not just because it’s the right and polite thing to do, but because what is happening and occurring between the two of you in this moment is so much more interesting and more thrilling than social media. Date the person who reminds you how important it is to be excited about things outside of your relationship. Who reminds you that while the love between you two is more precious than most things, a joyful life still requires you to get to know yourself and explore your world outside of them. Date somebody who makes you feel like a life with them will never repeat the same day twice. Someone who can experience as much adventure having a heartfelt conversation with you as they could by jumping out of a plane that’s ten thousand feet in the air. Date the person who attracts you with their mind even more so than the physical chemistry you feel between you. Date the person who will be just as attractive to you at seventy-two-years-old as they are right now, in their peak physical beauty. Date the person who makes you feel beautiful too. Not (just) for the way you look but more so because of the way you think, the way you make them think, and the realizations you’ve come to by being and sharing together. Date the person who ignites within you something you haven’t felt for a very long time. Unquenchable curiosity, a greater thirst for knowledge, and above all, the intense intimacy that comes with opening up your most guarded thoughts to another.

The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition (Official Video)

He’s willing to do everything he can to understand why you work the way that you do, so that he can support and love and encourage you even more than he already does.

It is something that we often seek and wait for. There are times when it is taken for granted. There are times when you will question its existence, but if it has finally made its presence strongly felt around you, make sure that you’ll cherish it and let it grow. Fight for it and don’t ever dare waste it. Too many people find it hard to receive love, so if you’re on both the giving and receiving ends, you are one of the few lucky ones. If you haven’t felt it yet, don’t rush it. Don’t worry about what other people are doing, what they are experiencing. Don’t force love. Don’t seek out contentment, don’t cheat your heart, because you will only be disappointed. Instead, learn patience. Learn how to stop fighting and learn how to let go. Think about all of the times you struggled to love yourself, together with the moment you finally were able to, because more frequent than not, we sometimes forget that the love we give ourselves is still more significant than the love we receive from other people. We often fear that letting go will hurt us almost eternally, but what we fail to realize is that holding on can possibly do just the same.

It doesn’t matter how close we get physically. I don’t care about the intimacy, the pushing into each others mouths, the grasping hands, the sharp breathes. All I want is to hold you. To see what it would be like to hold your hand. I want you to want me too, in every way possible. I want to be the reason you smile. For you to want to spend your moments with me when you could be doing anything you wanted. I don’t care about sex, I just want your mouth on mine for a goodnight kiss. I want you, in the most innocent, purest way possible.

I’ll love you at 6am when you’re just waking up with tired eyes and messy hair I’ll love you at 7am when when you’re heading out the door with coffee and keys in your hands about to start your day not knowing what life will give you today I’ll love you at 6:30pm when you’re just getting home with tired eyes a mind filled with thoughts I’ll love you at 7pm when you curl up in a ball next to me and tell me what adventures you had and mountains you had to move to get through your day I’ll love you and you break down in tears because you made one small mistake and it’s still with you because you over think everything I’ll love you when you say you’re going to bed but really you’ll just lay down in bed and stare at the ceiling wondering what is wrong with you I’ll love you when I hold you in my arms as you break down into tears because you think you’re worthless I will love you and whisper sweet nothings in your ear and hold you until you fall into a deep slumber only to start again tomorrow I will love you through it all...