An author I’ve only read in bits and pieces once said that we digest and absorb our lives by turning them into stories. I’m not sure what my life will become – I’m less certain now than I’ve ever been – but I know I will write beautiful stories.

That sounds egotistical, and I don’t mean to be. I’m not a perfect writer. I don’t even know if I’m a good writer. I am unnecessarily fond of cliché, I can make the simplest subject matter maudlin and sentimental, I have no gift for narrative and when I find a word I like, I latch onto it and refuse to let go.

But I know I’m a writer, whether I’m a good one or not. The written word is my primary language and always has been. It’s the way I digest my life; the way I work through everything that hurts and package it into something light enough to lift. It also turns my emotions into something I can communicate. And that, to me, is the beauty and the mystery of words: that through them, something as wild and inexpressible as feelings can be clearly expressed. Language allows me to translate the wild vacillations of my heart into something other human beings with wild hearts can read, and maybe even understand. Continue reading →

It’s amazing how good a life can look on Facebook.

Everything about the site is designed to help us make our lives appear perfect. We can inflate the positive and gloss over the negative. We can handpick the words, photos and interactions that best suit the image we want to portray.

Smile brilliantly and angle that picture the right way and you’ve got happiness and health. Post selectively enough about your accomplishments and you’ve got a successful career. Click attending on enough events, throw your arms around enough people, grin coolly in enough group photo ops and you’ve got a rich social life.

Conversely, it’s so easy to let someone’s Facebook persona make you feel bad about your own life – your very real life, where you’re intimately acquainted with all the bumps and flaws and confusion.

Don’t let it. Continue reading →

1. The people we love most dearly are still people. They’re bound to have flaws, and ideals which clash with ours. And that’s okay.

2. Real love doesn’t stop when you hurt the person you love. It doesn’t stop when they find happiness with someone else. It doesn’t even stop when they die. If it’s real, it lasts – always.

Continue reading →