Stephen Mcnally [ photography](http://www.stemcnally.co.uk/)

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How the Worst Day of My Life Became the Best Andrea Gibson 1975 –2025

When you are trapped in a nightmare, your motivation to awaken will be so much greater than that of someone caught up in a relatively pleasant dream. —Eckhart Tolle

When I realized the storm was inevitable, I made it my medicine.

Took two snowflakes on the tongue in the morning, two snowflakes on the tongue by noon.

There were no side effects. Only sound effects. Reverb added to my lifespan, an echo that asked—

What part of your life’s record is skipping? What wound is on repeat? Have you done everything you can to break out of that groove?

By nighttime, I was intimate with the difference between tying my laces and tuning the string section

of my shoes, made a symphony of walking away from everything that did not want my life to sing.

Felt a love for myself so consistent metronomes tried to copyright my heartbeat.

Finally understood I am the conductor of my own life, and will be even after I die. I, like the trees, will decide what I become:

Porch swing? Church pew? An envelope that must be licked to be closed? Kinky choice, but I didn’t close.

I opened and opened until I could imagine that the pain was the sensation of my spirit not breaking,

that my mind was a parachute that could always open in time,

that I could wear my heart on my sleeve and never grow out of that shirt.

Also born today…

Criss Cross (1949) Robert Siodmak