And stories shall become legends.

there is still time. there is still time. until your bones are in the fucking ground there is still time.

listen. aging into your thirties rocks. yes your joints get a little creaky. yes you can’t sleep in a pretzel on the floor anymore after a concert or a convention. and you lose some friends. but the thing is that you sort out who your real friends are and you sort out who you really are. and you get to see your friends settling into careers they like, and adopt new dogs and cats, and you find a job you can stand, and get really good at arts and crafts, and maybe that book you loved as a kid gets a movie deal and it doesn’t suck, and you learn to like new food and bake your own bread, and you realize that the great portfolio of self harm scars you all used to curate are going white with age and not updated, and half your friends are a different gender now and so much happier and maybe you are too, and you know who you are, and that it’s a journey and not a revelation. it’s a direction you’re headed, and you’re enjoying the trip.

reaching your 30′s rocks. and i’m hearing good things about what comes next, too.

i am looking into your eyes, i am holding your hand. i absolutely promise.

if you can just live long enough, your soul will build your body into a home. you will live there and you will find a way to be at peace. it’s worth the time and it’s worth the work. i promise.

Your purpose in life is not to love yourself but to love being yourself.

If you goal is to love yourself, then your focus is directed inward toward yourself, and you end up constantly watching yourself from the outside, disconnected, trying to summon the “correct” feelings towards yourself or fashion yourself into something you can approve of.

If your goal is to love being yourself, then your focus is directed outward towards life, on living and making decisions based on what brings you pleasure and fulfillment.

Be the subject, not the object. It doesn’t matter what you think of yourself. You are experiencing life. Life is not experiencing you.

Thank you this is the first post about self love that hasn’t made me want to throw things

This one. This one’s a game changer.

literally though if you feel like your life is slipping through your fingers and every day goes too fast… try doing hard things, not just taking the easy route, like reading and making art and exercising and cooking a meal from scratch and journaling, doing these things without distraction, without being absorbed on a screen… the time will stretch and you’ll be reminded that life is long and beautiful if you make it so.

Reblogging this with these tags because oh my goodness

To the person I reblogged this from THANK YOU i am now going to stick this on my pinboard where I’m gonna see it every single day

“Life is long and beautiful if you make it so”

do it scared do it weird do it alone. holy trinity

a graph based on my observations

I would like to apply a Dolly Parton quote to this most excellent graph.

a graph based on my observations

I would like to apply a Dolly Parton quote to this most excellent graph.

That post about 30 year old coming of age stories?

I’ve been thinking about it all morning. What would the plot points be for that? What makes a 30 year old coming of age story?

Old folks sound off in the comments

This article about a woman who went on a life changing lesbian cruise.

Rather than beginnings like teenage coming of age stories, a 30's coming of age is about change.

The thing about turning 30 is that you know yourself better, and you are usually just starting to have the means to seek what you want. You have enough life experience to know what you like and don't like. You may have a little disposable income, freedom from family, or finally be treating something like depression.

It isn't like being a teenager where the coming of age is new experiences; it's coming of age in knowing what you want and changing your circumstances. You look around and think, "I want and deserve better than this, and I can do it," and you make the change.

Getting a new job. Going back to school. Dating someone new. Moving somewhere else. Going on a long trip. Trying a new hobby. Or even just dressing differently! There's so many ways this coming of age can occur.

But there are layers to this. Unlike a teenage growing up story where you're writing on a blank slate, a 30's coming of age is turning the page. You might have to do something painful. Quit your job. Break up with someone. Say goodbye to your hometown. There's change. And with that, comes apprehension for the future and grief over the past, but you work through that anyway to seek something better for yourself.

To quote the article above, one of my favorite quotes of all time: "There’s something so deliriously pleasurable in the idea of trusting myself enough to know exactly what I want.”

Oh and by the way. This doesn't just have to be the plot of a book or fic. This can be your life, too. You can always do better.

Getting older isn't bad. Turning 30 isn't the end of your life. Things can be better once you know yourself more and know what you want. Embrace it.

it’s soooo hard to romanticize where you are now and like i get it, it always feels like the least beautiful time to be in, the worst point in history, your flop era etc, but it’s like Not though. every day i am amazed at the nostalgia i get for the past where i was objectively worse and more on fire than i am now like it doesn’t make sense until You Realize… nostalgia is often just you feeling regret that you didn’t fully experience what you had at that time. and it’s a call to enjoy where you are now because it truly is a unique part in ur life, no matter what is happening because life is a fleeting gift man. like IT IS!! experience every moment fully… it’s what your future self deserves when she looks back at you now

I really don’t believe there’s any such thing as a failed hobby. I think it goes back to “no love, however brief, is wasted” and “joy is never pointless”. Even if your hobby wasn’t quote-unqoute “successful”, I bet you still had fun with it, at least a little bit. You probably still learned something from it, or at least learned some limits to your abilities. And I think that makes it worth it

hitch your heart to one small thing

reminds me of this!

Mahmoud Darwish, ‘Mural’

~ Bianca Sparacino, "The Strength In Our Scars"

It took Oscar Wilde like 65K words to say this exact thing.

my singing voice is good for showers and mornings in the kitchen and drunken nights and lullabies for babies who need sleep and im okay with this

i think it’s silly to be ashamed of your art because it’s not in a museum and of your voice because it’s not selling out stadiums. there will always be people who enjoy and appreciate what you can do.

Idk why but this hit me really hard and I’ve been staring at it for a couple minutes.

there’s a whole lot of life left to live. a lot more art to make. a lot more love to give. a lot more oceans to see.