The wild, the weird & the wonderful.

We fear what we don’t know. And so we create these false narratives that comfort us about what we don’t know... AND we commit to them so aggressively that even when confronted about the truth of it, we are inclined to think of it as a lie. Why would we want to believe anything that threatens the way we have structured our entire lives? That would possibly mean we have been misguided, blatantly wrong or even hurtful to others because of how we chose to tackle reality. And we’re good people, right? We wouldn’t do that.

This is where knowledge is power, knowledge is human, knowledge is love. We can’t change what we don’t know. Learning others’ truths make things less scary, and the less scary things become, is the more beauty we are able to find in it. The wild, the weird and the wonderful. Speak to someone you normally wouldn’t, go somewhere new, have an experience you said you would never subject yourself to. Opening your mind to verities that differ from your own, or even challenge your own, is how you grow into your humanity. It’s okay to take a step outside of your perspective. For me, it’s actually very important to. I remember the many times I wished someone would have understood how my pain manifested itself instead of judge me for it. People go through things, all kinds of things. There is a word I came across recently - sonder - which means that everyone you encounter has a life as complicated you do. I try to remember this when I feel offended. It makes forgiving a lot easier for me, especially when I never receive the apology, and it helps to transcend my pain into genuine compassion. I chant in my head, “everybody’s coping”, almost daily.

The world needs your uniqueness and the world needs your understanding that everyone possesses this in 7 billion shapes and forms. It’s what grounds us and keeps us all human. Our differences may even be more binding than our similarities when we acknowledge and embrace their existence. The ability to adapt to changes and our environment is the way we have survived all these years, biologically. Mentally, it is crucial for us to have this same adaptability to do more than just survive - to thrive.