things that exist but you can’t see:
- people thinking about you and smiling
- flowers growing in your heart
- the moon’s affection for you
- how much you’ve healed already
- a lovely future written in the stars
Did you know,
you can quit your job,
you can leave university?
You aren’t legally required to have a degree,
it’s a social pressure and expectation, not the law,
and no one is holding a gun to your head.
You can sell your house,
you can give up your apartment,
you can even sell your vehicle,
and your things that are mostly unnecessary.
You can see the world on a minimum wage salary,
despite the persisting myth, you do not need a high paying job.
You can leave your friends
(if they’re true friends they’ll forgive you, and you’ll still be friends)
and make new ones on the road.
You can leave your family.
You can depart from your hometown,
your country, your culture, and everything you know.
You can sacrifice.
You can give up your $5.00 a cup morning coffee,
you can give up air conditioning,
frequent consumption of new products.
You can give up eating out at restaurants
and prepare affordable meals at home,
and eat the leftovers too,
instead of throwing them away.
You can give up cable TV,
Internet even.
This list is endless.
You can sacrifice climbing up in the hierarchy of careers.
You can buck tradition and others’ expectations of you.
You can triumph over your fears,
by conquering your mind.
You can take risks.
And most of all,
you can travel.
You just don’t want it enough.
You want a degree or a well-paying job or to stay in your comfort zone more.
This is fine, if it’s what your heart desires most,
but please don’t envy me and tell me you can’t travel.
You’re not in a famine, in a desert, in a third world country,
with five malnourished children to feed.
You probably live in a first world country.
You have a roof over your head,
and food on your plate.
You probably own luxuries like a cellphone and a computer.
You can afford the $3.00 a night guest houses of India,
the $0.10 fresh baked breakfasts of Morocco,
because if you can afford to live in a first world country,
you can certainly afford to travel in third world countries,
you can probably even afford to travel in a first world country.
So please say to me,
“I want to travel, but other things are more important to me and I’m putting them first”,
not, “I’m dying to travel, but I can’t”,
because I have yet to have someone say they can’t, who truly can’t.
You can, however, only live once, and for me,
the enrichment of the soul that comes from seeing the world
is worth more than a degree that could bring me in a bigger paycheck,
or material wealth, or pleasing society.
Of course, you must choose for yourself, follow your heart’s truest desires,
but know that you can travel,
you’re only making excuses for why you can’t.
And if it makes any difference,
I have never met anyone who has quit their job,
left school, given up their life at home, to see the world, and regretted it.
None.
Only people who have grown old and regretted never traveling,
who have regretted focusing too much on money and superficial success,
who have realized too late that there is so much more to living than this.— Susanna-Cole King
1. You feel secure with the person and are happy to commit to a relationship with them.
2. You don’t feel you need to hide anything from them.
3. You respect them, and they respect you. Neither feels superior to the other.
4. You are happy for their successes. You don’t feel as if you’re in competition with them, or that their successes make you feel inferior.
5. You don’t challenge, criticise or attack each other in front of others.
6. Neither of you is looking to the other to have unmet needs met, or to make up for personal feelings of lack or inadequacy.
7. You are happy for your partner to spend time with their family and other friends.
8. You don’t have a secret back up plan (“If he cheats, or leaves, me then I’ll … “If he does X then I’ll do Y”)
9. You inspire each other to be better people.
10. You know that they’ll always be there for you.
why are people so surprised when celebrities say problematic things? how many problematic things do you say in a single week? please stop pretending celebrities are flawless celestial deities. it is a form of dehumanization.
don’t be out here sharing your soul with everybody
Robert Adams
there is a light at the end of whatever darkness you are facing and it is warm and embracing and as nurturing as the sun
in 2018, i hope you find success in whatever you do, friends which will stick by your side no matter what, great big love and a healthy beautiful life
i hope you find what your soul really needs