Unlock Your Storybook Heart

miss you like… a book misses its shelf. a potion misses its bottle. a fox misses the woods. a witch misses their hat. a daughter misses her mother. —no simile can capture the pain.

when you’ve already lost a parent, it’s not easy to watch the living one age. i try never to take our time for granted, but what i’ve sometimes failed to realize is that living in fear of what the future will bring is a way of taking our time for granted, albeit unintentionally. i try to remember that i’m a being of the here & now—not the future days, & sure as hell not the ones of the past. i need to live here, within every single delicate moment we’ve been so graciously gifted. —that’s what i try to do, even if i’m imperfect at it.

some of the souls that are considered old are actually just young & exhausted due to the unfairness of the world they did not have the means to prepare for.

i know losing someone can make you feel like you’re nothing but a chipped wineglass with a forever-missing piece, but the thing is, a wineglass with a forever-missing piece doesn’t need to be thrown into the garbage. the rest of the glass is still whole. you can still drink from it—you just need to learn to be mindful of the parts that can hurt you.

i believe everyone has a purpose, but i also believe that not everybody has a purpose so dramatic it could be made into a series of epic books that’s eventually adapted into a series of epic blockbusters. sometimes just living is enough. sometimes just feeling is enough. —let it be enough.

i’ve stopped attempting to justify being kind-hearted to strangers by making up heartbreaking backstories for them, like maybe they’re going through a nasty divorce or maybe their childhood dog just died or maybe their parents told them they’re a disappointment or maybe they had a terrible week at work. i’m going to be kind-hearted no matter the circumstance, because isn’t that the bare minimum treatment we all deserve from one another? —every day you determine the legacy you leave.

the princess feels safer with her knight than any other, so before they leave the room together, she asks her to check the candlesticks to make sure every wick has been properly extinguished. before they go to bed, she even asks her to check the knob to the front door to make sure it’s been tightly locked against intruders. & you know what? her knight does all of it happily, for she only wants to ease her princess-love’s mind, no matter the cost. —they’ve got that unfathomably real type of love.

from time to time, our minds can have trouble differentiating between a long-lost memory & a pleasant daydream. so often, they feel exactly the same. does the thought of it fill you with delight? does it inspire you down to your bones? does it bring you immense comfort? then that’s all that matters. happy things aren’t nearly common enough, so feel no guilt as you grab hold of one & put it on a shelf you can always see.

we just know you're going to take the world by storm," they all tell her, proud as can be. "what if I don't want to?" she wishes she could say; instead, she stays quiet & smiles like a good girl.

you truly don’t have to wait until a special occasion to do anything, so go on & put the holiday tree up in august. stay up till dawn making that instagram-worthy cake. wear those glistening green heels. sprinkle cinnamon on absolutely everything. & before you can make excuses—who cares what other people may think or say? —it’s time you embraced what gives you joy

actually, no, i don’t take it as a compliment when you tell me how “hot” it is that i’m with a girl. believe it or not, my sexuality doesn’t exist to add fuel to your fantasies.