Reasons to Stay Alive
reminders for hard times
Because you haven’t tasted all the blue of the sky. The stars that are yet to break into your tongue. Like wishes you’d pleaded of a genie years ago, but been granted only now.
Because you’re yet to see so much beauty, the meadow of your outstretched arms cannot hold it all. Because there will come a time when things you’d forgotten you wanted will be gifted to you. Wrapped in a blue-golden foil. Hand-delivered by an angel, at the foot of your doorstep.
Because one cloudy dusk, you will bump into an old friend at a supermarket. You will pick up from where you left off. You will laugh with her like before again.
Because the sparrow still wakes you up at 6 in the morning. Because her chirping is a plea to be fed a fistful of broken rice. Because the dog, as ever, nuzzles up to the tip of your nose. Because he needs to be stroked. Because he wants your soft, calloused hands on the crown of his head. Combing through his curls. Because he has to be taken out for a walk.
Because of how soft his heart pounds as he cuts across a yard of flowers. Because the flowers perfuse the air with the notes of a new-sprung jasmine. The kind your mother would wear right before leaving for work.
Because the jasmines smell like the first bout of freedom. Because this time, the freedom will not come at a cost. Not a grief so dark it felt like your heart was being uprooted from your chest.
Because you’re yet to morph into a flower-bud a 5 year old spots in a park, whispering to her mother: I want to name her Lily. Can I come visit her everyday?
Because at the finishing line of your race back to yourself: you’ll see the faces of every single person you’ve hugged. Clapping for you. Embracing your victory like their own. Asking for the 15th time, what will you eat for dinner tonight?
Because you’re tired, but there are still so many feasts to be had. With the golden blazing circle of all the people you’ve loved, & cannot stop loving. No matter how hard you tried.
So beautiful. I needed this today. Thank you!
I have been reading Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones who quite beautifully philosophizes on the underlying belief that proximity to beauty can be transformative for the individual. Your post encourages the reader to do so hand in hand with nature. I am sure it wasn’t original however, I learned of this transformative connection of beauty, both via nature and art, from Iris Murdoch, one of my many heroines. Thank you for sharing, for sincerely caring for humanity.