Kindness, too, can be a kind of healing magic. Kindness too can break through barriers, dismantle weapons, tear down walls. Sometimes a sincere encouragement or altruistic favor can bring far deeper and wider spread awareness than even the most well-intentioned criticism or authentic observation. Sometimes a small act of kindness can transform the darkness that […]
Author: Cristen Rodgers
I Hope You Live
I hope you live – in all the ways that only you can. I hope you brave climbing the greatest heights and that you have the courage to take the deep dives. I hope you build your dreams, break the limits, and I hope you make some good friends along the way. I hope when […]
Don’t You Know?
Don’t you know by now that every love poem is about you? Do you not yet see that every song, every hastily scribbled line, every passionate rendition is for you as much as it’s for anyone? Love isn’t a one-on-one thing, something that can be kept between one giver and one receiver – because in […]
Where Love Ends
It isnt enough, they say. It isnt enough to live on love. It isn’t enough to feast on wonder and build with dreams. It isn’t enough to move with your soul and breathe with your heart – but we know it’s not merely enough. It’s the source of everything. It won’t work, they say. You […]
Get Out of the Game
Some people will still try to play you every so often, knowing exactly which chord to strum to make you feel as if you owe them your time, your attention, your favor, your surrender, your pain. Some people see weakness in your compassion and care; and they’ll try to extort them in an attempt to […]
We Love
We love in little ways that are bigger than they seem. We love by offering smiles when we’re crying inside. We love by lifting others when we feel torn down. We love by holding – holding doors, holding hands, holding hope, holding on. We love by letting go – our fears, our regrets, expectations, definitions, […]
There Came a Time
There came a time when I needed a mother, when that’s what I wanted most and yet I couldn’t have. There came a time when I needed comfort and care, so I started by admitting that I felt abandoned. There came a time when I needed support, so I started by confessing that I felt […]
This is Yours
All this beauty is yours. All of these stars shine and all of these flowers bloom for you. The misty mountains were carved out with your pleasure in mind, and the sparkles of afternoon sun on the water are to favor your eyes. The peacocks blazon, the wolves howl, and skies blush for you; and […]
The Tempest
A roll of thunder explodes from inside of her chest as the tempest stirs, awakens, and begins to rise. With the impending threat of a storm, a curtain of velvet drops over the world and, one by one, heavy drops drip from her slowly darkening eyes. At first heavy and hot, then cold and sharp, […]
Swim Through the Pain
I didn’t find my way back with grace but with grit – one day, one second, one fear, one tear, one storm at a time. I stumbled along, dragging the tattered scraps of dreams behind me – pleading, bleeding, and breathing in rhyme. At times it seemed the world was being washed away in a […]
One of Those Days
In that moment, she decided that never again would she wake up a slave to the remnants of days before. From then on, she would start her days with the simplest of affirmations. Each morning, she would close her eyes, take a deep breath, and feel her way to the complete conviction that today is […]
Built of Something Different
Some of us are built of something different. Some of us need to be uprooted in order to grow. We have to deliberately let go of everything that grounds us, that shelters us, that defines and confines what’s real. Some of us have to burn, to break, to jump, to implode – because in that […]