STILL LIFE

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Today, I choose to be vulnerable. 

I've been thinking lately about being "still." Or rather, as the response to the opposite. 

These past few weeks, I have been very, very busy. I feel like I wake up and hold my breath, and forget to breathe out for the entirety of the day. I'll be quite honest. Getting back into a normal rhythm of university life is hard. 

What I am learning is that it's okay to not say you are "okay" all the time. I feel as though we have this expectation for people to be "okay." 

"How are you?" We ask, with such emptiness.

"Good." We reply, equally empty.

People seem to not want to talk about what's hard in their life, only what's easy, what's short, what's "simple," if there ever was such a thing. Let's talk.

Let's actually listen to one another.

Having a conversation with someone is not waiting your turn to talk, but a communicative connection between two beings, with souls made out of the same wondrous light.

Let's not be "okay."

Let's be broken, joyful, beautiful, wonderful humans.

And people aren't beautiful because of the way they look on the outside, the mask they hide behind, the walls they've built, or the past behind them. What makes you beautiful is knowing that you aren't okay, and that you choose joy above all of it, despite it. The rawness of it. It is pure magnificence.

I think it is hard for us to be still, and to realize that we are human. In our culture, it seems odd if you aren't continuously engaging in social activity. It's okay to be odd. As an odd introvert myself, time alone is equally as important as time with others. 

And I am learning the importance of being still. 

- A