It's not all hollow,
the pain.
Some has a steady, filled
sense of being.
Less than heavy,
more than hollow.

Lonely isn't only
empty.
Sometimes full in ways
only later
​understood.

Ask me if they're knives,
but there are knives,
waiting at every turn.
Dodging knives is not
the answer, simply
let the cuts mean something.
Watch them bleed,
grow new branches,
of yourself,
​from the wounds.

None of it.
None of it was
intentional.
I saw light,
I followed.
I felt darkness,
I retreated.
Sometimes I 
faced it.

I won't pretend to know
what I'm doing,
where I'm going.

My heart is wandering,
as much as the next.
But I like, I like,
I like the way 
my heart wanders.

I like, I like,
I like the way
my spirit yearns
to expand,
to learn,
to grow.

I don't regret
a thing. I want
peace and quiet,
but I want joy 
and change just
as much.

I'll only listen to
the voices that encourage
my widest possibilities.
For I know that they
are who know what's best.

Listen listen to the voices
that resonate.
Ignore the rest,
ignore the rest,
​IGNORE THE REST.

​(for now)

-Refer to them by a nickname based on their physical body.
-Refer to them by the opposite gender pronoun that they identify with, then proceed to tell them that they look like that gender role with which they don't identify.
-Objectify them by making sexual advances and/or comments towards them about sexual advances when you know that they have recently experienced turmoil and are feeling raw/vulnerable.
-Talk non-stop AT them, when they clearly only need someone to sit with them and listen.
-Mock them and their feelings in front of strangers BECAUSE OF YOUR OWN DISCOMFORT WITH YOURSELF AND YOUR OWN FEELINGS.
-Tell them that people are speaking negatively about them.
-Laugh when they tell you about something positive in their life, simply because it goes against your own perception of what success and happiness looks like.
-Scoff at them changing their mind on a regular basis because they don't know what their next step looks like.

Self awareness and self knowledge can be intimidating when we see it in other people. Try to be inspired, rather than intimidated. Notice what you "don't like" in other humans. Investigate into the nature of your dislike. Is it simply a matter of preference? Or is it an insecurity with the ways in which you identify with those same qualities? 

Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
Look at yourself.
​Look at yourself.

Do you see the act alone?
Or do you see the act separate
from the artist?
What is the act?
Which is the artist?
Even from an artist's standpoint,
do we know the difference?
Where does one performance end,
and another begin?
Are we always on display?
How do we know whether
what we feel is real?
Whether what we perceive
is real?
What does real mean?
Why does it matter?
What do we have to anchor to,
other than the current perception?
How do we differentiate
between real and not real
when it all feels real?
Or is real always
changing?
Of course,

real is always
changing.
Real is

an illusion, 
as are

we all.

Silver linings are plentiful,
if you keep your eyes open,
and know where to look.

Everything is temporary,
the good, the bad,
all of it.

There is only one thing that 
any of us can count on:
the inner stillness, 
the endless, unyielding
inner stillness.

All we have to do is listen.

Speechless, for now...

"The wound is the place where the Light enters you."

​-Rumi