1. Sometimes your heart rate rivals that of a racehorse— remember that you’re not in a race. Breathe slower; think slower. The world moves fast enough.
2. You were not born to carry the world on your shoulders.
3. Everything happens for a reason— there is a divine plan in place. If you look closely, you can see the borders of the puzzle. You can see each piece settling into its place. Know that you are also settling into your place, even if the whole picture hasn’t yet been revealed.
4. Others’ perception of you has very little to actually do with you. It is not your job to be palatable, to be dainty, to be condensable into something bite-size and picturesque. If they cannot fathom your magnitude, it is not for them to fathom.
5. Distance really does make the heart grow fonder.
6. “Do small things with great love.”
7. Words lacking purpose seldom make their way into our collective consciousness; cliches are cliches for a reason. Listen to them.
8. Every word in a sentence has a purpose. Every sentence in a phrase has a purpose. Everything has a purpose. Pay attention to it all.
9. “There is no fear in love.”
10. Infinities are made up of individual moments. Moments are made up of individual infinities. Cherish it all, the big and the small.
11. Don’t let fear destroy relationships. Speak with intention. It shows that you listen. It shows that you care.
12. Be the shoulder your thirteen-year-old self needed to cry on. She is gone, but there are so many just like her. Care for them, as you would yourself. Care more.
13. Good company makes bad food taste a little better. Good people make the life you live a little sweeter.
14. Sometimes you need to look people in the eyes and tell them you love them. It matters more than you know.
15. Others will not always afford you the same compassion you afford them. You are not responsible for how others treat you. You are responsible for how you treat them.
16. Everyone deserves kindness.
17. Anger can be productive, but don’t sit in it too long. Take a small weekend trip into the fury, but once the time is up, give it a kiss on the cheek and a quick wave and make your exit. You do not want to live in the rage; pay a visit and learn a thing or two, then pack your bags and say goodbye. You have better places to be.
18. Vulnerability is power.
19. Every moment is infinitely important. Don’t wake up one day and wonder if your best days are behind you; they are always ahead. Time waits for no one, and you shouldn’t want it to.

Ah yes,
A new year to completely **** up.
I promised myself I wouldn't drink the next half decade.
I failed within the first three minutes
Happy new year

The last day of the decade in which I grew up.
Funny. Every year felt like a decade itself.

Pen-named or inked-- 
her wrist swivels. 
She's had many names, this author. 

even through so many lives
still learning how to be unafraid. 

Her wrist swivels. The page turns. 

And the blank pages terrorize
like a cliff.

and she, on the edge, 
does not know how to jump--
does not know if she should.

Writing is the drug,
anxiety is the withdrawal,
talking is the rehab,
and being told I'm wrong is the relapse.

New decade is coming along,
but it feels all wrong.
I feel all my memories pass by,
remembering the nights all I did was cry.
Knowing what it took to get to this,
looking through and being able to reminisce.
2020 is said to be mine,
redefine and realign.
Endings are sad,
beginning are scary,
there's no rhyme,
because sometimes life is confusing.

As a child growing,
time was my loyal companion,
Holidays coming in the perfect moment
Annual Birthdays never failing
Weekends always showing up.
But.
As an adult growing,
time has become an antagonistic companion
Never allowing me
To recover from
The past or
The present.
now there is another year gone
that includes
moments in which
I was drowning in mistakes
and seconds in which
I was floating in euphoria.
I want time to stop
For the ability to process
the gulps of bitter water
or sweet sensation of hovering in joy
as they happen,
Not when the ball drops
and we all scream,
For time has not ceased,
to show the world,
to show us,
to show me,
who is in charge.