Before you read this

Before you read this, go out and look at the sky.

It is night, it is day, it is the absence and the presence of more.

Before you read this, swallow a star.

You won’t be able to keep it but it’s a good lesson, to love things you know you can’t keep, and besides, it will light your way.

Before you read this, Dance.

Let your hips and shoulders stretch like a yawn, like a shout. Use them with abandon, they are yours and no one else’s.

Before you read this, cry for something you have forgotten. It was not a waste. It was a stepping stone.

Before you read this, move quickly through the world. Run, swim, leap, tumble, Move until the pattern of your heart shifts from ‘mortal, mortal, mortal’ to ‘alive, alive, alive.’

Before you read this, sing out loud. Quit saying you can’t. You have a heart don’t you? It’s the only requirement.

Before you read this, let yourself forget. You needn’t carry those things with you anymore. They were never intended for you, just cast offs from the people who built you, things that were too big for them to hold, and you picked them up because you fix things. But it’s time to let them go.

Before you read this, listen.

Listen to music in cathedrals and from the tinny headphones of the teenager next to you on the bus. Listen to birds and dogs and for animals you didn’t even know made noise.

Listen to your body; what is she hungry for?

Listen to the ones you love; what are they always not saying?

Listen to yourself at 5 begging for one more hour to play outside, listen to yourself at ninety rejoicing over hours well spent.

Before you read this, remind yourself that heartbreak will not kill you. It means you were brave. It means you lived.

Before you read this, give yourself permission to want more.

Before you read this, give thanks. Before you read this, dare. Before you read this...

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Idea stolen from Neil Gaiman's Before You Read This, which is super cool also, but kind of dark, and I wanted something more uplifting.