I think you should tell people how important they are to you not because they could leave at any moment, but because they're here now, and it's worth saying.
I just found out that elephants partake in ritualistic behavior in the form of "moon worship". They wave branches at the waxing moon and engage in ritual bathing when the moon is full. Matriarchies AND moon worshippers.
One of my favourite things I've ever read is about a woman who said that whenever she had a negative thought about herself, she would shout "GUARDS!" and imagine old knights entering and carrying the thought away.
I think about how hayao miyazaki said that love is two people inspiring each other to live. and to live doesn't just mean to be alive. living involves finding beauty in the simple moments of being. so to inspire someone to be in awe of the simplicity of living? that's special
Dostoevsky was 28 when they stood him in front of a firing squad. Blindfolded. Hands tied. He could hear the rifles being loaded.
At the last second a messenger on horseback arrived. The Tsar had commuted the sentence. The entire execution was staged. Psychological torture designed to break him.
It worked. He had a seizure on the spot.
They sent him to a labour camp in Siberia. 4 years. Freezing. Starving. Sleeping on wooden planks next to murderers. His epilepsy got worse. He had no paper. No pen. Nothing.
When he got out he was broke. His first wife died. His brother died. He inherited his brothers debts. He was so desperate for money he signed a contract with a publisher that would have given away the rights to everything hed ever write if he missed the deadline.
He wrote The Gambler in 26 days to make it. Dictated it to a 20 year old stenographer named Anna. Married her three months later.
Then the real work started. Crime and Punishment. The Idiot. Demons. The Brothers Karamazov. The greatest novels in the history of the Russian language. Maybe any language.
The man who stood blindfolded before the firing squad, who convulsed on the ground while soldiers watched, who slept next to killers in Siberia for 4 years, who was buried in debt and grief.
That man wrote: "every minute can be an eternity of happiness."
He earned the right to say it.
its never over. never give up fren.
From falling into an abyss. To a child's foolishness. To a broken barrier around the heart. To becoming love itself. To a mark on your face. To a vine that can't stand alone.
To a whisper you can't share. To a pull you can't resist. To a sickness that won't leave. To finding home in surrender. To loving like God loves. To a closeness nobody else can reach. To a debt you'll never repay. To a camel dying of thirst in the desert.
Arabic has 14 words for love. Each one describes a different stage. And here's what got me. Each one comes from a root that has nothing to do with love. Until you see the connection. And then you can't unsee it.
All 14. Let me walk you through them.