#bad times

[poligraf]

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.

— Howard Zinn

[palatinewolfsblog]

Times are rough - let's remember: Fear is "what if". Faith is "even if". U.N. Owen.

[nobeerreviews]

The good times and the bad times both will pass. It will pass. It will get easier. But the fact that it will get easier does not mean that it doesn’t hurt now. And when people try to minimize your pain they are doing you a disservice. And when you try to minimize your own pain you’re doing yourself a disservice. Don’t do that. The truth is that it hurts because it’s real. It hurts because it mattered. And that’s an important thing to acknowledge to yourself. But that doesn’t mean that it won’t end, that it won’t get better. Because it will.

-- John Green

(Konstanz, Germany)

[leifandthorn]

So I've been hearing some horror stories about Google traffic for personally-maintained websites falling off a cliff.

But it can't be that bad, can it?

Let's mosey on over to the Leif & Thorn statistics page, and see how the first half of 2024 went...

January: 15K pageviews, 18K hits

February: 13K pageviews, 16K hits

March: 14K pageviews, 17K hits

April: 13K pageviews, 15K hits

May: 12K pageviews, 15K hits

June: 2.5K pageviews, 5K hits

...welp.

(July is only half over, but in case you're curious, it's up to less than half of the totals June hit.)

[kuhulua]

Is that a threat 😶

[cosmonautroger]

[soulinkpoetry]

If you need strength to carry on hang on to good memories. Those will keep you going.

.

.

[fluseven]

This brand for vegan gummies has partnered up with a German soap opera called „Gute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiten“. The result is this delightful, bright pink gummy that just says „bad times“ in German.

It tastes vaguely of strawberry.

[barmy-owl]

Oh god! I've never felt so ill before in my life.

[potentially-a-poser]

Y’all I need to bitch. I’m not Christian anymore, but sometimes my dad drags me to church (he does not know I’m not Christian).

I have had severely fucked up feet that make my life a lot more difficult and painful basically my whole life, but it got really bad when I was 12-13ish. Every single church I went to (we were fundamentalist Pentecostals), I would go up to get prayer for god to help me with my feet. My parents wouldn’t take us to the doctors for a rly long time cause they were like “god will heal you 💖” and also they were conspiracy theorists who thought that if we entered a drs office we’d be forcibly vaccinated. Without fail, every time they would tell me that god would heal my feet because I was such a good little Christian girl and was so committed and faithful (side note: about this time I figured out I liked women and had started s4lf hurting, partially to punish myself for that).

Anywho, I recently got surgery for one of my feet because I was on the verge of genuinely not being able to walk at all anymore. We went to one of the churches i got prayer for my feet on. For the first 30 min of service, the pastor was talking about how if we prayed, god WOULD heal us miraculously. I was pissed but expecting it.

Then this bitchass old lady sitting behind me grabbed my shoulders harder than any old lady should be able to do, and she whispered “god told me to tell you knows exactly what’s in ur heart and he loves you” which is so fucking generic but I digress. But anyway she then proceeded to play with my hair and rub my shoulders for literally 3-4 minutes (which doesn’t sound long but oh my god it is). Keep in mind this lady had no permission to touch me and I was visibly uncomfortable.

The pastor also lied from the pulpit and said kids today don’t know what a pastor is. He’s also a bus driver and he said whenever he tells kids he’s also a pastor the most common response is “what is that?”, which I guarantee is a lie because we live in the Bible Belt and my school has FCA meetings before school twice a week that are always packed, and a good amount of teachers have Bible verses on their walls. We have 12 churches inside the city limits (the town has 4000 ppl)

Anyway, overall bad time

[devine-acension-831]

After a girl gets out of a toxic relationship, she's single for a long time. At first, it's lonely. In the beginning, it's hard. For a little awhile, it even hurts. But after a certain amount of time, she embraces being single and finds it empowering knowing that she doesn't need a man to be happy. But once a girl gets comfortable with being single, it's hard for her to be mentally attracted to anyone. Once a girl gets familiar with being on her own, it's hard for her to be emotionally connected to anyone. Once a girl gets used to taking caring of herself, it's hard for her to be dependent on anyone. The reason behind that is, she's not trying to go back to that dark place she was in before, she's not trying to waste her time on a guy who's gonna turn out to be undeserving, and she's not trying to end up with the wrong one. She's spent a lot of time detoxifying herself and finding herself again and the last thing she needs is for another toxic guy to come along and cause her to lose herself again. So yeah, it may require extra attention, it may require extra effort, and it may require extra time but if you somehow manage to get her to not want to be single anymore, then you're gonna get a girl who's whole again, who's secure enough, and who's ready to love and be loved again. 🖤🤍

[skyloftian-nutcase]

A prompt: Four and a ghost

Four sighed in contentment as he leaned back against one of the logs they'd arranged around the fire. Almost everyone had settled to sleep, and he was getting ready to head that way too, when he glanced at Legend.

The veteran was going to take first watch and was gazing solemnly into the fire, a strange contemplative look crossing his features when he noticed Four watching him.

"You okay?" Four asked hesitantly. "You seem a little out of it."

Legend stared at him for an almost uncomfortable interval before he waved a dismissive hand and returned to his vigil. "It's just late. I'm fine. Good night."

The smithy watched him uncertainly, not really knowing how to push or if that was even needed. So he gave up on the venture, sighing and heading to his bedroll, already prepared and awaiting his arrival. As he slid under the cover, he gave one last look at the veteran hero, and his blood ran cold.

What was--that was--

Was that himself hovering over the veteran?! What the hell was happening?!

Four stared at his strange reflection, who watched Legend just as solemnly as Legend watched the fire. Then the image flicked its eyes at the smithy himself, making him forget to breathe.

Before Four could leap out of his bedroll, the ghostly image of himself disappeared into the night mist.

[shoku-and-awe]

- Morning walkies very sleepy

- On a slope, right flip flop catches in left leg hem (flowy Thai fisherman pants I slept in, whyyy)

- Stumble hard, prepare to absolutely eat shit on the asphalt, phone hand first

- Ancient instinct activated: Perfectly executed tuck and roll!

- Pop up unscathed (scaredy-cat dog not even slightly worried, what?)

- Two hours later, body remembers that it’s 35 years old

- Yuh-oh

[rose-colored-b0y]

This photo is a few years old but god damn do I still love it. I was at my lowest point I’ve ever hit in life and I can feel it in this photo, now I’m at my highest point. ❤️

[pandora-books]

"I knew these were bad times to be a poet. It was a time when no one listened to the poets anymore, when the words of poets went unheard by all, rich and poor, by politicians and judges, police and factory workers."

John Phillip Santos, Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation

[samhaft]

🔥🔥🥺🔥🔥

.. be honest, is it giving elmo?

anyway the video for “afterburn” is out now, directed by Brielle Garcia - check it out: