Be kind to yourself.
You have come so far.
Each emotion you feel tattooed
to your skin
the seasons wash away like chalk.

Be kind to yourself.
You are braver than you thought.
No longer scared of what lies
beneath your bed
but what awaits when you wake up.

Be kind to yourself.
You are worthy of love.
Only you give permission
for forked tongues
to leave passing words as lasting scars.

Only you can adopt old failures
and stack them as obstacles
upon each new path.
You cannot dictate what will be
only – who you are.

Be kind to yourself.
You are doing enough.
You cannot always be switched on.
Sometimes you have to lay down
and breathe –

it is not greed.
If you are always exhausted
you cannot help anybody.

Be kind to yourself.
You did not grow
from a single cell
born from a dying star
in order to feel so small.

You did not close the door
on friends when you expected
more from them.
Why beat yourself up
for who you were before?

Be kind to yourself.
A faltering dancer who gets up
again and again
draws the loudest applause
at the curtain call.

A person who spent half their life
at war with themselves
knows the value of peace,
the feat of getting out the house;
the measure of good mental health.

Be kind to yourself.
You have come so far.
They say ten thousand hours
is the time it takes
to master an art.

You spent so much longer than that
learning the patterns of your heart.
You can pull at those common threads
that keep you together
even when you are falling apart.

Be kind to yourself.
You are stronger than you thought.
Like Leonard says,
“there’s a crack of light in everything. “
You do not have to be perfect.

You do not have to live in the dark.
Be kind to yourself.
Make sure you get to the end.
Do not worry
how you stumbled at the start.

if they could see themselves now
twenty years ahead

if I had known
five years back
would I still have moved along

if we could see the truth
in the eyes of the prophet
while entering
how many would walk in

if we had the end
in our hands
for how many would the begining
still be worth more

sometimes I think we're blessed
with ignorance
lucky
time moves
one second at a time

for how many hours of
bliss and peace
wouldn't we miss
if we knew back then

how we were gonna die

with all things for now in hand
you did
make me happy
for some time

and that time
should always count in
as a reason enough
in the end

as if our roads were never meant to cross
although our feets lead us right to this
like we never stood for real,
as I saw it in your eyes

and all that time that built our pieces back,
as if we never were meant to do anything other than
break, and build ourselves back
-          to this

I hope you found you liked yourself better this way,
like I did
(we were both so stormed apart as one)

do you feel

my affliction
how it twirls
bears me down
on my way up

do you recognize

my ambivalence
we are through
but never sufficient

do you see

my fortitude
my pride
my lack of strength
shame
how i blend into the wall
behind

see me
through me
remember me
let me go

do you share

my yearn
always for the diminutive
in the everlasting

the need
to stir

so fallible
so inevitable


and there comes you
so smooth
you fold me in
brush me out
lies me down

are you aware

are you aware of how you save me?
all of the sudden
life is not so unwieldy
all in all its still

step by step i touch down  
with you
again

and its sufficient