I saw life fill the listless. My first concert was an outdoor music festival featuring several acts. But the only one I remember seeing that day was TLC. I remember them because I’d never seen anyone like them. …

Thus, it can not have me. — My grandmother always talked about her “ship coming in.” It would happen someday. She was certain. To support this belief, she enrolled in a local college after having 10 children and helping to raise several grandchildren, me and my younger brother included. She was the oldest student in all her…

Living in the face of death. — It feels callous to go on with normal life, tragedy after tragedy. After tragedy. After tragedy. After massacre. In the trenches of devastation, it feels dismissive and inappropriate to post a picture of my sunset or write about the person I love. Just as well. …

More than a verb. — Someone asked me how I learned to love myself. I shrugged like I always did and recited my typical rundown of books I’ve read and philosophies I’ve adopted that helped (and still help) me along my way. …

He’s passing by the café a fourth time. The man riding a fancy-looking white motorcycle circles the block once again. This time, Al Green’s voice is blasting from his stereo. I look up from my seat outside the café when I hear “Love and Happiness… Something that’ll make you do…

Lessons are everywhere if we’re looking to learn. — The bathroom in a condo I was renting had the most awful shower head. It came with three settings: bearable, rip your skin off water pressure, and barely a drizzle. I chose the bearable setting most days. When I wasn’t feeling adventurous enough to kick it up a notch and…

You don’t have to know the messenger to receive the message. — My grandmother gave me only one piece of relationship advice, repeatedly throughout her 79 years of life — “treat people how you want to be treated.” Imagine if everyone lived by this principle and made it a point to live and love with integrity. If we were all open communicators…

If we’re being honest. — I can hold a twenty-pound weight over my head with one arm, easy, for about 60 seconds. At that mark, my arm starts to get tired. It may tremble as the weight begins to feel heavier than it is. Sit another twenty-pound weight on top of the one I’m already…

For you will always find what you seek. — I don’t want to talk about red flags anymore — what you should “look out” for and the reasons you shouldn’t get close to people or let them get close to you. I’m weary of lamenting all the different ways others will let us down. It’s exhausting, searching for the…