dharatheexplorer

[dharatheexplorer]

It’s okay to live a life others don’t understand.

Jenna Woginrich (via theartidote)

[dharatheexplorer]

“But don’t you ever feel the urge to speak to strangers?” she asked. “To ask them about their lives?

“Don’t you ever wonder what helps them fall asleep, and what keeps them awake at night?”

[dharatheexplorer]

[dharatheexplorer]

He was so easy to love. He made you feel safe. When he held your hand it was like you were flying. When he kissed your face you felt like you could fly. He made crossing the road feel like an adventure; with his hand on the small of your back. He laughed at things easily, he was soft, gentle, kind. He understood when you were quiet, when you were loud. He listened. He listened to your words, and he listened to your silence. “Come here,” he would say, with his arms open wide, and you would go. “Stay,” he would beg, and you would stay and you would stay and you would stay.

Sue Zhao (via blossomfully)

[dharatheexplorer]

I'd rather have a life of 'oh wells' than a life of 'what ifs'

[dharatheexplorer]

‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. 'It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’ 'Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit. 'Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’ 'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, 'or bit by bit?’ 'It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.’

Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

[dharatheexplorer]

I think of you in those in between moments Between living and nothingness Where I float in that realm of not quite being Yet existing all at once I think of your laughter Wonder where your eyes are gazing And if your mind ever drifts towards me I miss you in those in between moments And I hope you think the world of me still

- the first time I fell in love

[dharatheexplorer]

[dharatheexplorer]

“Sometimes people walk away from love because it is so beautiful that it terrifies them. Sometimes they leave because the connection shines a bright light on their dark places and they are not ready to work them through. Sometimes they run away because they are not developmentally prepared to merge with another—they have more individuation work to do first. Sometimes they take off because love is not a priority in their lives—they have another path and purpose to walk first. Sometimes they end it because they prefer a relationship that is more practical than conscious, one that does not threaten the ways that they organize reality. Because so many of us carry shame, we have a tendency to personalize love’s leavings, triggered by the rejection and feelings of abandonment. But this is not always true. Sometimes it has nothing to do with us. Sometimes the one who leaves is just not ready to hold it safe. Sometimes they know something we don't—they know their limits at that moment in time. Real love is no easy path. Readiness is everything. May we grieve loss without personalizing it. May we learn to love ourselves in the absence of the lover.” ―Jeff Brown #ThingsItTakesAWhileToUnderstand

artwork by Sara Andreasson

[dharatheexplorer]

[dharatheexplorer]

Even when I’m dead, I’ll swim through the earth like a mermaid of the soil, just to be next to your bones.

Jeffrey McDaniel, from “The Archipelago of Kisses,” Splinter Factory (via lifeinpoetry)

[dharatheexplorer]

[dharatheexplorer]

somewhere there is a woman in China holding a black umbrella so she won’t taste the salt of the rain when the sky begins to weep, there is a 17 year old girl who smells like pomegranates and has summer air tight on her naked skin, wrapping around her scars like veins in a bloody garden, who won’t make it past tomorrow, there is a young man, who buys yellow flowers for the woman in apartment 84B, who learned braille when he realized she couldn’t read his poetry about her white neck and mint eyes there are people watching films, making love for the first time, opening mail with the heading of ‘i miss you’, cooking noodles with organic spices and red sauces, buying lemon detergent, ignoring ‘do not smoke’ signs, painting murals of his lips in abandoned warehouses, chewing the words ‘i love you’ over and over again, swallowing phone numbers and forgotten birthdays, eating strawberry pies, drinking white wine off of each other’s open mouths, ignoring the telephone, reading this poem somewhere someone is thinking i’m alone somewhere someone finally understands they never really were. —irynka

painting by Edward Hopper (gif artist unknown)

[dharatheexplorer]

Bedtime Story: Can I tell you a secret? You don’t have to be in a relationship. I mean it. I know they force it down your throat until you choke on it. Girls aren’t pretty unless they’re wanted. Boys aren’t men unless they’re having sex with someone. People aren’t lovable until they’re dating someone. But a relationship won’t always make you happy, and as wonderful as romance is, it isn’t the only love that exists. I have seen friendships that are deeper and more pure than couples who swear it’s forever - and yet the friendship is the one people ignore. I have heard so often “nobody loves me” out of the mouths of people who are single. And it kills me because if you ask them: where are your parents, your teachers, your classmates, your pets - they say, yes, okay, but it doesn’t count. Of course it counts, love doesn’t diminish just because someone doesn’t want to have sex with you. In fact, doesn’t it sort of make that love more real that they want nothing - not even a date - out of you? It is pretty to be in love. It’s magical, I’m sure. But it’s also wonderful to stop for ice cream in your prom dress with six other girls. It’s also wonderful to go visit the world with nothing but a bunch of buddies who are really excited about learning. The problem is: we’ve made everything about “the one”. But maybe “the one” is just you, loving yourself, having fun, and being happy. Maybe instead of looking for our other halves, we should be piecing ourselves together. Maybe I wasn’t born unfinished. Maybe I am the one who makes myself better. —Single serving size // r.i.d aka inkskinned illustration by Fernanda Schallen

[dharatheexplorer]

“She had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, like when you’re swimming and you want to put your feet down on something solid, but the water’s deeper than you think and there’s nothing there.” —Julia Gregson, East of the Sun

artwork by Karolis Strautniekas

[dharatheexplorer]

[dharatheexplorer]