i dream of new york city.
but not only new york city.
i dream of chicago, of san francisco, of madrid;
i dream of any city big enough to hold me
and the wildness i carry.
i dream with a love greater than myself,
a love big enough to wrap me in its arms,
a love with grace to forgive my faults.
i dream of the words 'you're beautiful'
sang to me like a song, written in love letters,
tangled in poetry.
i dream of breakfast dates, of long walks,
of sweet and salty lips together.
i dream of finding myself
of getting lost
and the joy of being found again,
i dream of the words i have yet to write,
the stories i will tell,
the days i don't know.

vulnerability is a risk.
it might break you.
but through the cracks is where the light shines.
vulnerability is a game
and no matter how much you lose
you will always win.
vulnerability might wound you,
but it will heal you, too.
don't run away from this,
don't walk away from it.
come closer, dip your toes in this water.
know that this is how you grow,
how you love,
how you become into what you will be.

when i think about the fact
that you and i
share the same sky
the distance between us
isn't so large
and maybe you and i
share more than
just the same sky.

maybe love is in new york city.
maybe love is in paris.
maybe love is here.
maybe love has seen me
and secretly thinks i'm beautiful.
maybe love isn't as far from reach as i think it is.
maybe love plays the guitar or the piano
and has written songs about me
and the way my hair dances in the wind.
but maybe love is in new york city
waiting for me to visit.
waiting for me to take the train
waiting for me to make eye contact
while he sits on the opposite side of me.
maybe love is in new york city
or rome
or spain.
maybe love writes poetry.
maybe love loves someone else right now.
maybe love will find me in five years
or in two months.
but love is out there.
maybe in new york city.

i hope you love yourself.
that every morning when you wake up
you can smile.
i hope
that when you look in the mirror
you can see all that makes you special.
that you don't need to look in the mirror
to remember you're beautiful.
that you love yourself enough
to follow your dreams,
to leave your fears behind.
i hope
that you love yourself enough
to let go of what hurts you,
what weighs you down.
that you love yourself enough to
believe in yourself,
in the light you carry inside.
that you love yourself enough to
live for tomorrow.
i hope you love yourself.
i hope you stay.

stop
and make time
for the things you love,
or the things you love
will stop
making time for
you.

i am not my body.
my soul is too big to fit inside it.
i have left my body many times
looking for a home for my soul.
i tried to fit it inside other bodies
inside someone else's soul
only to get bruised and breathless.
i tried leaving my soul in places
but then
when i left
i ended up missing it
so i brought my soul back to my body.
it knows it is not its home
but it is the only home i know.
every now and then
i let it go
and it visits the stars.