To Anyone Who Feels Like Giving Up

One breath at a time, know that your life has meaning.
One breath at a time, know that you were given this life for a reason.
One breath at a time, know that it will get better.
One breath at a time, know that this pain will pass, as all things do.
One breath at a time, know that beyond the pain, life is sweet … so sweet that those moments of sheer loneliness and hurt will one day give way to joy and happiness.

If you have ever doubted your value,
doubted you are loved,
doubted the meaning of your life,
internalized the criticisms you have been fed,
felt that perhaps the world would be better without you in it,
know this:

Life will never be a procession of flawless, painless, worryless years strung together by a thread of gold. Accidents happen. Suffering happens. Change happens. Stress happens. Hurt happens.

BUT … Look at the oceans, mountains, and clouds to see that all that rises must fall, everything that exists must die, every object that stands before you will change, all that seems perfect will transform. Life is motion. And that means this pain you now feel will surely pass, will surely transform, as everything does.

What to do in the meantime?

Accept it, invite it, expect it, sit with it, embrace it, inhale it, love it, use it.
Let the changes, the flaws, the accidents, the stressors, the people, the suffering teach you, grow you, shape you, mold you … and then transform.

The world *needs* you.
Life *needs* you.
And your soul needs you to wait it out, because this pain you now feel will one day pass, just as all that arises must also fall.