There are some famous suggestions that I am reminded of. These suggestions are very basic and common. But moreover, they are simple and true. At the same time, I have never been someone who likes cliches. I am not one for positive affirmation quotes, yet I understand them, and I understand their meaning or the need for quotes like this.
Don’t go to bed angry.
How many times have we heard this? How many times have we said this to someone? How many times have you heard the saying “always kiss me goodnight,” in the sense of commitment, as if to remind your person “that’s it!” no matter what happens, “it’s you and me against the world!”
This is beautiful. Of course, this is beautiful especially when we live up to this quote and fulfill its potential.
However, sometimes we fail to remember. Or we forget the important pieces of our journey, which is that you and I are never alone — so long as there is always you and me.
How often have we allowed anger to intercept our best interests? Or what about our fears?
What about the thought machine?
What about the self-built tragedies?
What about the suffering that comes from our own thinking?
How many times have we been a puppet to our own emotions?
How often have we been a puppet to our past or, even better, how many times have we let our thoughts run away from us?
And next, we fight wars in our head and imagine casualties that do not exist. What does this do?
I have allowed myself too much time to soak in my anger.
Yes, absolutely.
I have allowed too many resentments to overtake me and outrun my best interests to which, I lose my cool, so-to-speak.
I lose my patience. I lose myself to the floods of so much discontent that I lose everything, — or so it seems. Like I often say, I lose to this like water loses to a drain.
Let me take this from here . . .
let me stop this ride and let me push myself away from the unwanted tale, stand up, and walk away.
Do not go to bed angry.
I love this idea.
But more, I love the impenetrable feeling that I can have once I decide to stop my anger.
I am sorry.
I am sorry for my past.
I am sorry for my rage.
More than anything, I am sorry that my fears turned into fires that my anger blew into infernos.
I am sorry about the wakes and the aftermaths and the wreckage of my past.
I am sorry to you, who I hurt the most and to you, the person I see in the mirror, I think it’s time that you and I forgive each other.
Build Bridges.
Not walls
And remember something:
Wars are expensive . . .
Don’t believe me?
Then look at all of your losses.
Look at the path behind your worst battles.
Look at your casualties and see who you’ve hurt.
(Including yourself)
I think about this –
I think about the so-called peace talks that go unresolved.
I think about the broken treaties and the assumptions of incoming wounded.
In the past few months, I have seen great and terrible things.
I have been subject to change.
I have seen a homeless Mother receive housing and listened as she secured her first month’s rent.
I had to hear the results of a lost suicide. (I miss you, my friend.)
I have been told mean and terrible things, and I have had to look back and forth into my emotional mirror and defy the inaccuracies of my own reflection.
Mom used to tell me, “Nobody ever promised you a rose garden!”
Mom has been gone for quite some time now.
She left on 6/10/15.
The Old Man has been gone even longer.
He left on 12/29/89.
There’s so much on the table now and there’s too much at stake.
I have infinite dreams and limited time, which means that I have to start living now. As in “right away!”
Time waits for no one.
It passes you by.
Enjoy yourself.
It’s later than you think.
Don’t forget to open your eyes.
“Let our soul and spirit fly.”
Love with all of your heart.
Whenever possible, never forget to tell the people you love that you love them.
And always hold hands when you’re crossing the street
(or walking with me on the beach).
The Written Addiction 