Thankful for the small things, the tiny things, the in-between things—the way the wind sneaks through the cracks in the morning, whispers of coffee steam curling like ghostly lullabies, the scuff of a shoe on pavement, the hush of a friend’s voice saying I hear you. The weight of a book in your hands, the rhythm of a song that rattles your bones just right, headlights stretching long down an empty road.

I have loved stars that collapsed into themselves. People who once burned with the kind of brilliance that made you believe in something bigger—something divine. They carried light in their hands, in their words, in the way they saw the world with wild, unfiltered wonder. But like Icarus, like Lucifer, like every fallen thing that ever thought itself untouchable, they flew too high, reached too far, believed themselves invincible.

The best is not behind you. The best is not in the hands you have already let go of, in the love that has already left, in the dreams that have already withered. The best is ahead, waiting for you to stop gripping the bones of something long dead.

Resilience. That’s the word that sticks with me tonight. We’re capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. I’ve always known that, but tonight, it feels real. It feels close.

I’m realizing now that the story I’ve been aching to tell all these years isn’t just mine. It’s the stories of all the people I’ve met, their lives entwined with mine, their histories bleeding into the fabric of my own.

The kind of memory that cuts you down, not gently, but with the sharp edge of something you thought you’d left behind.

Notes: Reference notes provide information about works that have been paraphrased or directly cited in a text.

once. a singular first step.

"Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again." – Nelson Mandela

“Once your soul is awakened, you never return to the sleepwalking state of mind. Some people become complacent in life. They are just going through the motions and not aware of truth. Seek the knowledge, wisdom, and the understandings that vivify your existence.”

― Amaka Imani Nkosazana

creative expression free writing exercise: thoughts

Daily meditation is a curated collection of quotes for insight, contemplation and inspiration.

thoughts and ramblings from activist artist erin mcgrath rieke

“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.”

I woke up in the TV room to the smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen and P grunting as he did pushups next to me on the floor. Twisted in the couch like a pretzel with a big, thick purple blanket wedged between my knees for back support, I had slept alone on the first floor again.

It begins with a first step.