Some words of encouragement

I want you to know that you’re worth something.

I want you to realize that, whatever problems you may be dealing with, you are never alone.

I want you to understand that people, even those you may not realize or talk to every day, are here for you.

I want you to know that whatever may have happened yesterday, last month, last year, last decade, doesn’t affect how wonderful you can make the future.

I want you to realize that you can overcome anything that comes your way, no matter who or what tells you otherwise, including your own mind.

I need you to understand that there are good people in this world, around every corner, who won’t judge you, or abuse you, or put you in a place you have no desire to be in.

I need you to understand that you are stronger than any self-deprecating thought that crosses your mind.

I want you to know that I know being strong isn’t easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.

I want you to know that no outside opinion of you matters, only the light you view yourself in.

I need you to know that people care. I need you to know that I care. He cares. She cares. They care.

I want you to know that there are people out there who, when they look at you, see the sun.

Stay strong.

– Ryan

Thunder

Trying something a bit different today…forgive the amateur quality of this particular post.

She looks up, as the sky weeps unto the land. Across distant treetops cloud-light flashes, creating a brief, but mesmerizing, display, the spotlights of a hundred stadiums brightening the sky all at once. She turns her attention downward as the crackle of thunder roars at her, a roar somehow hitting her from all sides. On the stone below her droplets hit, seemingly bouncing back up for a millisecond before settling in with the rest of the gathering water, making way for the thousands more drips to come after it. On the bare earth, however, they disappear, sinking into the brown abyss.

Another stadium display lights the clouds above her, turning her attention back upwards, where the partially stripped trees sway, unhinged but for their roots. An orange-brown leaf flicks at her forearm; she feels its leathery, veined touch before it flies away to join its multicolored companions. Roar, the sky hurls at her again, yet closer this time.

Leaves crackle and squelch underneath her boots as she makes her way forward, the occasional pocket of mud being hidden in the covered forest floor. A third flash, brilliantly creating a silhouette of trees above her, a half-second from a ’50’s horror flick.

She knows its coming this time, she braces herself for it.

It doesn’t help. This roar is louder than any ones prior to it, so loud she’s certain there’s no way they could get more deafening. She knew it was coming, but it still bites into her, assailing her, beating at her chest harder than her own heart. It almost hurts.

She realizes she can’t beat this. Knowing another roar is inevitable only makes it worse. Nature itself is a force of nature, and no strength of will can stop an unrelenting force.

……

Right?