#gentlesadness

It’s okay if your victories don’t look like everyone else’s. Sometimes, victory is eating something today. Sometimes, it’s answering a message instead of disappearing. Sometimes, it’s just staying, one more hour, one more night, one more sunrise.

Healing isn’t a straight road. It’s a messy, uneven trail filled with setbacks, tears, and tiny moments of light that barely last long enough to notice. But those moments matter. They’re proof that something inside you still believes in a future you haven’t met yet.

You don’t need to be positive all the time. You don’t need to have it figured out. You don’t need to force yourself to be okay just because others expect you to. You only need to keep trying, not because the world deserves your effort, but because you do.

You’ve survived things that should’ve broken you. You’ve endured storms no one else saw. And even if it doesn’t feel like it, you’re growing in the cracks of your pain.

Please keep going. Even when it hurts. Even when it’s unfair. Even when it feels like no one sees you.

Because one day, you’ll look back and realize that every moment you chose to stay, every night you whispered, just one more day, was building a life you were always meant to find.

i think that’s why i find comfort in it. the moon does not rush its phases. it allows itself to wane, to thin into a fragile curve of light, to become almost nothing before it grows again. there’s something deeply human about that rhythm. we are not meant to be whole and shining all the time. sometimes we are meant to dim, to rest, to gather ourselves in the dark.

when i look at the moon, i’m reminded that distance does not mean disconnection. it feels far away, untouchable, and yet it pulls at the tides. it moves oceans without ever raising its voice. maybe strength can be quiet like that. maybe presence does not have to be loud to be powerful.