The List

From the Realistic Optimist

Painting by Sylvie McKnight-Milles

The List

Break, and then dust your pieces off and marvel at who you are after (because the pieces will not be in the same places they were pre-break)

Cry in the shower

Love the young person you were-gaze on photos of yourself you used to find repulsive and ask that person for forgiveness-love she/he/they with all your might, because she/he/they is you.

Speak aloud your whimsy (I believe that a small piece of light live in me, and keep glowing even when all feels lost)

Buy skin products because it's so fun to feel the luxuriousness of the balm, embody the scent, marvel at the packaging as art

Straighten a pile of stuff, but don't sort yet-you're not ready to let things go, that's okay

Wear your softest jeans.

Listen to the music you loved and lived for. It's still everything!

Remember your list, and when you are at your weakest, recall that you have strength which sometimes comes as tears, sometimes as laughter, sometimes as fighting spirit, sometimes as a good nap.