#food for thought

aidashakur:

So, I’m realizing… I require a lot.

& that’s okay because I also give a lot.

honigimohr:

its really comforting to know that all the times i was at my lowest and loneliest in the past the whole time i had my self in the future and present who had survived those things looking back with love and tenderness and wishing desperately to offer comfort…i am my own guardian angel and i can use that knowledge when im struggling now and remember that somewhere there is a version of me that has survived this and is watching me with love and pride and joy in her heart

hansbekhart:

glorious-spoon:

grison-in-space:

feminesque:

naamahdarling:

roachpatrol:

roachpatrol:

ultimately i think kindness is the most radical thing you can do with your pain and your anger. it’s like, you take everything awful that’s ever been done to you, and you throw it back in the world’s teeth, and you say no, fuck you, i’m not going to take this.  you say this is unacceptable. you say that shit stops with me.

humans are fucking terrible and this awful world we live in will fucking kill you but if you are kind, if you are brave and clever and try really hard, you can defy it. you can impose on this bleak and monstrous structure something beautiful. even if it’s temporary. even if it doesn’t heal anything inside you that’s been hurt.  

i’m gonna sleep and i’m gonna wake up and i swear by everything in this deadly horrible universe i’m gonna make someone happy. 

i’ve seen a number of comments and tags where people feel that they must swallow or repress their anger in order to engage in kindness. that is not at all what i am recommending here. radical kindness is an expressionof anger. it is not passive. it is not repressive. it does not require you, in any way, to forgive those that have fucked you up. it does not require you to be quiet. 

it just requires that you be kind. viciously. vengefully. you fight back. you plant flowers. give to charity. play games. pet someone’s dog. scream into the dark. paint and write and dance, tell jokes, sing songs, bake cookies. you have been hurt and you don’t have to deny that hurt. you just have to recognize it in other people, and take their hand, and say: no more.enough. fuck this. no more. 

have a cookie.

i will say this again: we are all going to die. the universe is enormous and almost entirely empty. to be kind to each other is the most incredible act of defiance against the dark that i can imagine. 

i will say this again: we are all going to die. the universe is enormous and almost entirely empty. to be kind to each other is the most incredible act of defiance against the dark that i can imagine.

1. The universe is indifferent. We ought not be.

2. A good quote: There are two kinds of people. Those who think, “I don’t want anyone to suffer like I did.” And those who think, “I suffered; why shouldn’t they?”

3. Two good quotes by Kurt Vonnegut: “Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies-“God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”

And: “Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”

Another good quote:

“I. THIS IS NOT A GAME.

II. HERE AND NOW, WE ARE ALIVE.”

You can be kind and fuel it with rage. You can be kind and fuel it with a bitter twist, or you can be kind and fuel your kindness with righteous anger, or you can be kind and fuel it with love or spite or ecstatic joy. And no matter what your fuel is, you still can make kindness happen in the world so that people can warm themselves by it.

Kindness isn’t an emotion, kids. That’s the thing. Kindness is action. Kindness is choosing to take your emotions and channel them towards doing the most good where you can; to choose the targets of your actions carefully; to spread a little joy behind you, when you have a little to spare.

Kindness can mean a gentle word or a shouted imperative. It can be a warm meal or a gentle hug or a clean death. Kindness can manifest in many ways, and not all of them are one hundred percent nice. The kind thing to do may be doing nothing at all. 

But kindness is, above all else, an action.We are imperfect humans, and we cannot control our emotions–but we can control what we do as a result. We can control the actions that our emotions and experiences propel us to perform. 

The darkness is nothing but the absence of light, you know. It is endless and nihilistic and all enveloping. A lit candle has no hope against it.

But if enough of us light small candles and little matches behind us as we walk through this wide, uncaring universe, we can light up that sky. We can take an empty world and we can fill it with each other. 

That’s how we can take the bones of an empty universe and forge a warm hearth fire humanity can use to keep back the night. 

But kindness is, above all else, an action.We are imperfect humans, and we cannot control our emotions–but we can control what we do as a result. We can control the actions that our emotions and experiences propel us to perform.

Good is a thing you do.

imawitchywitch:

My therapist, who is probably in her late 40′s, told me she never pursued more artistic opportunities in her younger years because one teacher told her she wasn’t a “good artist”. Now after taking art lessons the past few years she is pursuing an art therapy license.

I sit here and sing along to my iTunes remembering how I was punished as a child in elementary choir class which made me avoid choir like the plague as I grew older. I took band classes instead, which I stunk at, making me feel like I would always be a failure musically. Today, I can for the most part carry a tune and even harmonize, and can make up songs pretty quickly.

We need to remember that the arts are meant to be FUN, subjective, and a form of self expression instead of telling kids they are “good” or “bad”, “talented” and “not talented”. The arts are not meant to be graded.

butdotheykiss:

I fcking called the mole from the start only because both him and vegas spoke english

skyeventide:

that one Celebrimbor post is making the rounds again and now the latest reply* is giving me another thought but I’m posting it separately for convenience and cohesion and —

I feel there’s something to be said about the tension that exists between wanting to embalm (tolkien’s own very colourful word, peep that value judgement… but that’s a whole different post) Middle Earth, that is, wanting to preserve it or recreate it as heaven, to make it exist and function the way Valinor does, and therefore issuing a challenge to Valinor (it may not be an active challenge, I don’t think it necessarily is — but it is, inherently and personally, surely one)

between that and accepting the help, to do so, of someone who poses as an emissary of Valinor. 

I don’t think it had really struck me until now how deep the deception might well run there. because of course, we don’t really have much at all, that I recall, about what Sauron says specificallyto gain Celebrimbor’s trust, and his people’s. but it’s not difficult to imagine that being given these powers and this lore by someone who is, in theory, a herald of the group you supposedly challenge might in some measure be instead read as a blessing of your endeavour. the narrative of the challenge to Valinor (while I think it remains personally and perhaps subconsciously relevant in the deeper motives; I can’t imagine it isn’t part of it all in some measure, not when the doors of Durin sport a nifty star of Feanor right there — it’s also a semi-textual reason, I say semi cause that’s somewhat debatable, but not for this post) might well shift into an acceptance from Valinor. an emissary of the Valar is offering that very knowledge? it almost reads like endorsement.

at which point it could also well give yet another layer to the distrust Sauron-as-Annatar encounters from Galadriel and Gil-Galad. it isn’t just that they refused return, it’s also, potentially, that they cannot believe that an Ainu would, at this late hour in the Second Age, offer up the means to halt time, stop decay, and preserve memory, make their own paradise. 

and granted, we don’t know how Sauron spun it in detail; there’s ways to present all of this very subtly (the time-honoured tradition of Ainur sharing knowledge and teaching among the many). but this is apossibility, which gave me some thots, as after all the people of Eregion cannot have had monolithic thoughts on the matter.

The closer you get to your blessing, the harder the devil tries to attack you.

Stay focused.

It’s fucked to think that the one person who keeps me afloat is the same person who drowns me. 

A journey on a path that cannot be defined or conceptualized. Mentally, physically, and emotionally abundant and expanding

Missed Voyager opportunities

Just one of those thoughts that floated through my head today… Prefacing this with: I haven’t watched Picard yet, so I’m not sure if they explore this at all.

Something I would have LOVED to see in the context of Voyager, which utilized every resource and asset at its disposal to survive the delta quadrant, was to see Seven presented with the opportunity to become fully human: no implants, magic nanoprobes, or borg collective knowledge, and have to grapple with the real possibility of what those trade offs will mean to her, her relationships with the crew, and her value to the ship…

not sure if any have explored this. if theres a fic like that send it my way

I think you are meant to stay in my heart, but not in my life. I love you, but I can’t keep self sacrificing so much for you. I care about you, but I have to care about me too. Please understand.

— alhwrites

“When you can only see a situation in black and white, look for grey. And when the the situation seems only grey, seek out the black and white.”

- Mari Andrews