diana

forgive yourself again and again and again and again and again

james baldwin was right. one day i’ll weep for this. one of these days i’ll start to cry. 

i genuinely think we need to practice being listeners more, putting ourselves in other people’s shoes more, looking beyond our own problems more. the only way to foster truly deep connections is through listening to others as much as we want to be listened to by others. i cannot stress the importance of cultivating a natural curiosity for other people’s stories and feeling for them, as much as we feel for ourselves and our own issues, enough. in the end it’s all about loving as much as we want to be loved

my mom says she’s not a hugger. but when i put my arms around her on a gloomy day or after bad news she’s the last to let go. my dad says he doesn’t want gifts on his birthday, but i see the way his face light up when i get him a card with a nice message and a box full of chocolate anyway. he’s just a kid inside, still. it makes him giddy. my brother never says i love you. but when i tell him “i just need to finish the dishes before i vacuum!” he wordlessly goes to vacuum the entire house before i can, and if he sees me struggle with a wrapper or a jar or a bottle he mutters ‘c’mere’ and opens it for me without even sparing me a glance. the thing is, people love you quietly, and you love them quietly, and the air is buzzing with tiny but grand gestures & once you look for them, you find them everywhere. i think that’s really beautiful.

when you practice kindness and i mean seriously, consciously choose it over and over again, it shows. that kind of selfless love etches itself into your laugh lines, steeps like a teabag until your words are inherently graceful. sometimes we spit out that choice through gritted teeth, but late at night when time stands still, the universe kisses your eyelids and promises you twice the love in return.