Dear Allonya 2023,

Hey girl hey! We will be living our best life here in 2024. I know you are crying, sobbing and about to throw in the towel. Like the old Negro spiritual says, “Hold on just a little while longer”! You look in the mirror every day and smile but behind it, there’s sadness. Sis I know it’s hard, I am you, you are me, and we ar…read more

Tracy- you powerful, brilliant, loving human. I hope this letter finds you well. What are the views like there? Look around. Breathe. Lean back wherever you are planted and soak this in. Deep inhale. Hold it- release. Your breathing is so important, my love. It will carry you, this air. You must allow yourself to slow down that all-absorbing heart…read more

Dear future self:
Please don’t forget about the old me…
I know you’re ashamed of me in this current
Stage.
But I am growing and changing…
Addressing the darkness I’ve been hiding for so long in order to protect everyone.
I knew I’d make it,
And be the person I always saw myself as
Please acknowledge that my years of brokenness
Have lead to thi…read more

Dear Future Me,

Have we done it? Are we happy? I so badly hope we’ve made it. I so badly hope you look back at this time and laugh because of how different you’ve become. I hope your laugh echoes in every room you walk into. I hope that when you wake up you find beauty in the way that the sunlight tickles your face as it shines through the bed…read more

dear byrdy ,

she doesn’t call us that anymore , she hasn’t since we were 13. such a long time ago , feels like a century . we got through our “terrible” twenties and made it to our thriving thirties , i’m hoping we did . I am hoping we made it to 23, 26 , 38 , 54 ,67 . do the words that mother said still matter to us and linger in our heart ?…read more

the unsealed
Write a letter to your future self
500-800 words

This morning you laid awake in bed praying for clarity. You are 2 days away from turning 32. As you write this, the sun heats the left elbow that is attached to your body, drawing attention to past mistakes that have been forgiven. The string of red cardinals from North Carolina,…read more

What’s so beautiful of a young artistic mind. It is he or she that fills the world with laughter. Now discard that who is she? Lima where are you who are you. A chef a cook a home or a forest. Yet I don’t want to be I’m crazy I’m insane people look at me quite ill yet they are ill and cause depression for they have not seen happiness the way god…read more

You will have alot of names, not just in this lifetime but in other lifetimes as well. They took away your name but they can never take away who you truly are. Our names are powerful and important but so is your true Soul. The life path evolves and the trauma deeply impacted you but your one true Soul and dazzling light still shines. Your very…read more

To the me I wish to be,

One day you’ll think about this letter while you sip champagne with all of your new fancy friends. You’ll talk about how our love of pretend turned into your love of stories and how the writing came easy to us. You’ll cite Hemmingway as your favorite author, but I know it’s truly Maas.
What you won’t talk about is all of…read more

Are we happy?
We chose ourselves.
We finally understood that our greatest weapon is us. And the most lethal artillery we could carry was, and is compassion. Perhaps we could talk tangible numbers but we realized far too long ago that subjective materialism brought us no joy. We made people remember they’re intrinsic worth. We reminded folks of t…read more

Dear Me,

The irony of this letter is bittersweet.

I look back on my life now and see hopefulness, a life filled with joy and contentment.

Yet at times I weep at the lack in which my present day stillness lay meek.

I have found life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to be disgusted by the definite perplexities in which I once knew. That…read more

Dear future self
We got out of a situation that almost killed us
Moved to a state that took us away from her
Got into therapy and hoped our pain would go away
Some days are better than others
Some days we’re perfectly fine
Others we’re crying wishing that she’d change
Dear future self
Can you tell me if it ever gets better?
I’m breathing
But it…read more

There is time you spent looking
somewhere in the course
of the day
or days
or weeks and months
maybe even years

for that certainty of presence.

This is where you are no longer any sort
of impostor
of fearful
of lacking
of emotional
or dramatic

when the only thing there is, is that you, yourself, are.

those noises in your head are you
however…read more