"For a star to be born, there is one thing that must happen: a gaseous nebula must collapse. So collapse. Crumble. This is not your destruction. This is your birth."

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"I will always want myself. Always. Darling, I wrote myself a love poem two nights ago. I don’t know where you get this from but I am whole; woman who grows flowers between her teeth. I tend to my garden. I dance myself out of pain. You think women like me crawl for pity? You ever seen the offspring of a lion eat grass? This wanting of myself gets stronger with age. I host myself to myself. I am whole." Ijeoma Umebinyuo

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"In truth, you never reach ‘healing’, you simply reconnect with that sacred innocent place in yourself that was never traumatised in the first place - never broken, never damaged, never not whole; your true Self, absolute, ever-present, free."

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"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep."

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"Desde que a minha vida saiu dos trilhos eu sinto que posso ir a qualquer lugar."

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"Sigo mal y seguiré peor, pero voy aprendiendo a estar sola y eso ya es una ventaja y un pequeño triunfo." Frida Kahlo

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"I must change my life so that I can live it, not wait for it."

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"when you’re ready, come outside. learn from it, stay alive."

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"There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in."

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"I let it go. It’s like swimming against the current. It exhausts you. After a while, whoever you are, you just have to let go, and the river brings you home."

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"And perhaps we all deserve to be honest, all deserve whatever help we need. Our stories are all so many things: Heavy and light. Beautiful and difficult. Hopeful and uncertain. But our stories aren’t finished yet. There is still time, for things to heal and change and grow. There is still time to be surprised. We are still going, you and I. We are stories still going."

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"In the end, always laugh. And do not lose this strange habit of having faith in life."

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"Step into the fire of self-discovery. This fire will not burn you, it will only burn what you are not."

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"I have flowed, become stagnant, festered, I have fallen from above. Mass, rhythmic, in harmony with my millions of drops, I have rained. I have been earth with the earths. Foaming, humid, I have slept a faceless face down. I have. Had. Lived. Done. Been. All the words that grow before the tip of the tongue, before I reach it. I am a body who has enjoyed creation." Hélène Cixous

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"Do you know what is like to have poems kicking inside of you? Do you know what is like to swallow so much loneliness that it stains everything you taste."

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"Break often - not like porcelain, but like waves."

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"One day when you wake up, you will find that you have become a forest. You have grown roots and found strength in them that no one thought you had. You have become stronger and more beautiful, full of life giving qualities. You have learned to take all the negativity around you and turn it into oxygen for easy breathing. A host of wild creatures live inside you and you call them stories. A variety of beautiful birds rest inside your mind and you call them memories. You have become an incredible self sustaining thing of epic proportions. And you should be so proud of yourself, of how far you have come from the seeds of who you used to be." Nikita Gill, You Have Become a Forest

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if you remember that life is fluid you’ll never feel stuck. nothing is the end all or your only option. when something ends it’s your time to start something new. it doesn’t matter how often doors close if you’re always moving forward. don’t dwell or try to open those old doors. the more you keep moving, the more you’ll see life is working in your favor.

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you grow with the trees and you grow with the years but why does no one tell you about growing with the pain. why does no one tell you that you will fight it in the morning and you will try to silence it at night. why does no one tell you that you will pretend it doesn’t exist and in those soft tender moments, it might even disappear. soon after it comes back and knocks on your chest until you realize it’s not worth the fight. you have to let go and you have to move on. why does no one tell you about growing with the pain, and why doesn’t no one tell you that you will eventually outgrow it?

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This did happen to me. It cannot be undone. I must continue to live the best I can. Past was what we carried with us, threaded to the future, and we decided whether to keep it close or let it go. Fate was both what we were given and what we made for ourselves.

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You are healing.

You are growing.

You are evolving.

This is a quiet magic.

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"I think the hardest part about being suddenly left behind is the unprepared closure. No matter how much you want to tell them that they hurt you, or how much you want them to know that you let them in and they took advantage of that, no matter how badly you want them to admit that they did care, and that they still care….you don’t always get that conversation. Sometimes, all you get is the courage to say goodbye and the strength to pick yourself up and move on."

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“there will be pain, there will be doubt there will be beauty, there will be the unknown. there will be so many moments of joy and delight that the whole universe will feel painted in hues of amber and wonder. there will be times you are so sad you can’t lift your head. and there will be times you are so happy that the sensation of life knocks you down. but most importantly, there will be you. a whole, whole lot of it. and you will feel good about who she is and who she is still becoming.”