I once saw a patch of flowers with a piece of litter in it. My first thought was, "oh, it's ruined. Somebody ruined it." But then, as I appreciated the flowers a little more, I realized, "it's not really ruined. The flowers are still there, even if so is the trash." I was in the car at the time, so I couldn't remove the trash... but I took solace in the hopes that one day the flowers would be freed from the litter. To be whole, to be happy, one must feel. You cannot selectively suppress your emotions, it's a package deal. Bottle your pain and you bottle everything else with it, you will be hollow. Block out your joys and you will be left with a similar nothing. One must remember that good and bad can coexist... do be both good and bad is to be human. Sometimes I hear things about how the great people in history were actually terrible. Yoh know, all the famous names, the big ones, the cool people we all look up to and idolize. "So and so was actually mean to these people over here, that guy secretly made this mistake, etc." And sure, it's sad. But why do mistakes have to invalidate everything else they accomplished? We look up to great people for a reason, after all. Is it not better that these flawed people still tried to make the world better in any way, rather than simply being the worst? The villains in history have no redeeming qualities! And heck, the rest of us are imperfect, could we have done any better?? No one is perfect. But neither is anyone completely lost. To err is to be human, to forgive is divine. So let us strive to be better, and forgive each other and ourselves. The past is past. The mistakes we have made we cannot take back. What is important is what we choose to do next, with the time we have left. And when things are hard, remember that the bad does not cancel out the good. That the good and the bad can coexist for a time, until the good persists long enough that the bad fades away, because that is what happens. Every time. Good lasts. Bad is left behind. The next time I saw that patch of flowers, the litter was gone.
Felt like yapping, hopefully this brings a little good to anyone reading it, be they someone suffering now, someone who has suffered, or someone who will suffer. Or someone who thinks I'm being in sufferable. Idk maybe this whole project is pretentious I cant tell Enjoy or don't I guess, but I sure liked writing it Inspiration and quotes from: Alexander Pope (I haven't actually read his stuff) Brené Brown (go listen to her TED talk) The patch of flowers I drive by sometimes Probably something else I forgot
