You’ve changed.
No. I took charge of my life.
I shed years of
blackness from my life.
Decades of overcast emotions
from my heart.
Years of caused neglect
from my nervous system.
Decades of tape marks
amongst my voice.
I did not change.
I found me!

Dear Community,

I would like to ask a question and share my thoughts: Does anyone believe in connections? When I search for the right person to be with, I often develop a special bond over time that I find hard to break.

For example, I’ve been experiencing a lot of ups and downs with my partner. When I discuss our problems with others, I often hear questions like, “Why can’t you just leave?” or “You shouldn’t have to put up with this; just walk away.” I understand that people will have many questions, especially if they aren’t aware of the full story.

Many say that when you find the right person, you’ll just know it. However, I don’t know if I’m alone in feeling that if you started dating your partner in high school, became sweethearts, and remained friends afterwards, a strong connection develops over time, right?

That’s my dilemma. I admit I’ve had intense discussions with my partner, and I’ve shared this with everyone, including my family. Leaving is difficult, especially when your heart is still invested. It battles within you: on one side, you love the good things about him and want to stay; on the other side, you resent the negative traits and want to protect yourself.

Then there’s that voice in your head reminding you that he’s your best friend—the person you clicked with instantly. You don’t want anything bad to happen to him.

My question is this: If you have a connection that feels so strong, how can you break it if it comes down to that choice?

Dear Mental Health,

I wanted to reach out and ask, “Do you exist?” Growing up, I experienced difficulties in school, and I understand that not everyone grasps things right away. But why did you have to bring us the gift of different emotions?

I know that these illnesses, as you refer to them, affect everyone, but do they come in different categories? Are they randomly assigned to each person out there? These are questions I’m eager to understand, but perhaps that’s the mystery, isn’t it? Why are some of us chosen to face these challenges? I never asked for them, and I’ve always wondered if I could have been given different conditions. Perhaps that would have led to a different life for me—who knows?

Thank you for considering my thoughts.

“As night falls, the sounds gradually fade into complete silence. The stars emerge as the clouds above drift off to sleep, while fireflies glow gently in the dark sky. As the countdown to dawn begins, the night will give way to light, making room for a new day.”

Darkness falls with the sounding booms as a gentle breeze fills the house with coolness. The nighttime welcomes the aroma of fresh food being made, while the soothing purrs vibrate through the house. As the sky descends, light shines on the shadows, and the insects make their music known.

To my oldest daughter,

You’re approaching a significant milestone this year, and I can hardly believe you are getting ready to turn 15 and start your freshman year of high school. I want you to know that, despite the long and difficult journey we’ve shared, my love and feelings for you will never change.

I admit that I made some mistakes when I was younger and that I wasn’t fully prepared to be a mother. However, my experiences with you and your siblings have helped me make better choices for you. I want you to know that I will be here for you as much as I can to support you in your career choices and make that next phase easier for you.

As your birthday approaches and you continue to blossom into a young woman, remember that you are ready for whatever comes your way. No matter what you choose to pursue, I will love you unconditionally. Even though I may not be around 24/7, I’m just around the corner.

I love you.
Your Mother

In a hot box mobile home, where the sunlight gleamed,
Lived a woman named Michelle, who often daydreamed.
With her coffee in hand and a laptop on her lap,
She was lost in a tale, in a wonderful nap.

But just when she sighed, “This is bliss, oh so nice!”
A spider appeared, oh so crafty and spry.
He danced on a blanket, did a jig on the floor,
And Michelle, in surprise, dropped her laptop — what a fall!

“Hey there, my friend, can’t you see I’m engrossed?
Your eight-legged antics, quite frankly, I loathe!”
But the spider just winked and performed a grand leap,
As Michelle tried to shoo him, her coffee took a steep.

It tipped and it splashed, oh, what a disaster!
Her dream turned to chaos, and the silence unraveled faster.
“Why must you interrupt my serene little life?
I was cleaning the coffee, not dodging a spill!”

The spider just chuckled, with a mischievous grin,
“I thought you’d enjoy a bit of a spin!
Life’s too short for quiet; let’s mix it up a bit,
Wouldn’t you rather laugh than just sit and sit?”

So Michelle took a breath, bit back her frown,
And decided to jump from her eight-legged clown.
The laptop flew on the couch, oh, what a sight,
A woman and a spider, escaping by flight.

Now, whenever she prepares her laptop, with her coffee in hand,
She glances around for that arachnid friend.
For some time it seems, in our quietest space,
A little interruption can bring entertainment wherever you go!

In the quiet moments of creativity, you might find yourself staring at a screen, feeling a sense of longing for inspiration that seems just out of reach. It’s tough when those blocks wrap around your thoughts like a heavy fog. You look around your space—a unique puzzle made up of health, hygiene, entertainment, food, and drama—and you know there’s a wealth of ideas waiting to unfold.

But when the spark dims and the muse veers away, it can be disheartening. You wonder what forms you can explore to break free from that barrier and reignite your passion. It’s okay to feel stuck; it happens to all of us. Remember, even in those still moments when creativity seems distant, the potential for new ideas is always there, patiently waiting for you to let it in. It brings out more ideas when the block evades your space. Everything around you is like a puzzle separated into categories: health, hygiene, entertainment, food, and drama. There’s a wealth of creativity surrounding you, but when the inspiration runs out, what forms can you use to break the barrier?

Inspiration fills the air as the sunshine awakens the morning birds. A woman sits with her cats, sipping coffee while her medication begins to recharge her energy and clear her mind. As the day progresses, the oven inside starts to cook. The ideas that develop branch out into many possibilities. Do they always remain the same, or do the surroundings influence how the mind perceives these ideas?

Dear Unsealers, this is a story about a girl who started her school journey with many possibilities until she found the one piece that changed her life forever.

Sammie was in the process of just starting her sophomore year at high school. She ended up finding herself a whole new bunch of friends, activities, a whole new bunch of choices that she overwhelmed herself at first but she figured out she was going to just wing it and see what she could get into even though her freshman year didn’t start too great after her relationships got the best of her but she thought to herself not to worry there were new things out there to explore so she didn’t mind what she was going to endure next. She couldn’t believe that after her classes were set in and everything, how the lunch program was set up with different times, it was like, well, why can’t everyone in the school eat together, but they say there’s not enough time during classes for everyone to be put together. Anyway, besides her exploring the different outcomes for friends she ended up one day during an afternoon recess she was chatting with one of her friends and she stumbles across the gym and saw a bunch of students playing around in the gym she assumed it was p.e class but she for a split second something caught her eye and her friend was wondering Sammie who are you starring at and she told her that she was looking at someone that piqued her interest and she asked her friend who was he? Do you know anything about him? She started laughing and telling me things about him, but we ended up getting caught by Zack and one of his friends looking at us was wondering who that girl was staring at me and why. We started leaving from the gym doors, and she kept thinking to herself Wow, I like the way he looks, his smile, and laid back personally. She wanted to know, but she wasn’t sure where to start. She ended up, however, getting lucky in the next few days. Zack and Sammie ended up reconnecting during a PE class together and had to spend it outside on their course track. They started talking as they were walking towards the bleachers they couldn’t believe they were laughing about how they kept looking at each other and she started spilling her guts about how she makes her feel cute and attractive, and the other things about him that made her light up but she started to notice how he would just sit there smiling, blushing with everything she said and he started muttering about his life talking about what he likes and so forth. As they were walking they were discussing if they wanted to begin something but they weren’t sure but she felt something starting to happen inside of her and she decided to go through it but she, however, wasn’t sure if he had every intention as she did but after a long talk they decided to start dating on what they noticed was funnier they ended up looking at the time when they walked back to the class that it was their friend’s birthday today so they said look our anniversary will always be April 24th after that they ended up being inseparable. They both started every day by talking, texting, hanging out, you know the drill, but they ended up hitting a huge snag during school time. She ended up figuring out she wanted more of the relationship. She wanted to always be around him, and she wanted to get to know more about him, but she noticed, especially after he graduated from school 2 years later, that the attraction started dying down, and she wanted to know why. She found out at first that his family was working all the time and he wasn’t old enough to drive yet, so she figured that he couldn’t see me as much, so she brushed it off her shoulder for now, but as time went more, they were happy together. Even though at the time he was working she felt like he made the time the best he could to see her, call her, and text her it was like she was doing all the work including having to get in the middle of his parents and his cousin to spend time with him cause she was in the same predicament at the time he was the only flaw on her end was she was living with her parents at the time and even she had no way to get to her love so want she wanted to explore more and open into she couldn’t get her answers. So, during her last round of school, she made the worst decision to drop out of school even though her peers and teachers kept putting the idea and guilt in her head that she was so close to finishing Sammie was determined after failing her 1st 6weeks course and her senior project scared her into finishing her school year. Even though later on she admitted to Zack that he was the main reason why she left school. She said she felt that he was a big piece of her life, and since that was the only way they could honestly see each other and spend time with him, that was the only way their connection got stronger. She felt that since he was gone, she couldn’t focus on what was more important to her. So she ended up dropping out of high school and tried to focus on her next choices for her life, but she mostly paid attention to how to figure out how to spend more time with Zack while he was struggling with his work and family. As time went by, Sammie ended up losing her home, and she had to go to a program with included housing, and at the time, as she was working on herself, she was mostly focused on more of her relationships. She was still having problems with Zack. She ended up finding out more information about him than she ever prepared herself for. As it turns out Sammie’s identity that Zack knew about surfaced to his family and they weren’t happy that he wanted to be with someone like her so in time she noticed that things were drifting more apart once she confronted him about why he told her that I wasn’t really happy being with you my family said that you should only love me no one else I wasn’t ready to communicate with you, move in, or anything. I wasn’t ready to give up everything I had for you. Sammie dropped everything suddenly and was thinking a lot, but ended up saying what she felt. How could you say that? I did my best to be with you. I wanted us to spend more time together, spend nights together, and see how things with us were going to be being around each other more to see if we were ready to expand further, that’s all she wanted, but that wasn’t the case for him. So, after heated words were thrown around, we decided after 3 years to end everything and just be friends. Sammie ended up resenting him for a while, but something in her heart cared about him so much that she always ended up talking to him and checking on him every day as they both moved on with their lives. During their time apart, they ended up going through different locations and different people, and even brought new additions to their lives, but something ended up tying them back together. She ended up after a hurricane destroyed her life. She ended up one day going to visit Zack at his new location to find out that he was just living his life day by day. He was doing alright, just working and taking care of his new children. She sat down and explained to him everything she was going through and what her next steps were after the hurricane she endured blew through everything she was taught, she had, and everything was shattered. They talked about possibly reconnecting, but this time, everything was drawn out to make sure this was what they wanted to do. She wasn’t sure what he was thinking, even though he said everything about how he was feeling about it. They decided to leave everything that they had dealt with behind and started to try again. She couldn’t believe that everything was going to fall back into place. She kept running thoughts through her head like were things going to be different this time Were our connection that we have going stronger Were we going to be happy together were we able to produce our family Further Many questions were soaring through her mind but her worst part came true when she was making her dreams happen the hurricane came back through and it was trying to destroy everything more Sammie was trying to do to make it come true but the rain from the storm was manipulating everything in place. Zack went in and protected her by blowing through the storm and helped Sammie move everything in and get them set up for the next questions in her journey. As to this day, they have moved to another location, added a furball addition to their journey, and they are going on 19 years of best friend relationship and 3 years of a connecting marriage.

Her shape of creation
is far more contagious
than the scribbles
it once was.
The craft from within
is overflowing with
small golden flakes of serenity.

Lace up this heart of mine
with your gentle hands
rather than your toxic lips

The final good bye of a broken heart does not happen in the light but by way of the midnight dark.
I was holding on to all we were,till there were no more words and I no longer hurt I asked you to stay ,I begged,and I prayed but still I was not your one.
Why did you ask for my hand?why did I allow myself to feel as if this was my only chance? These questions are a mystery.butthere they are laying quietly inside of me.
I gave you my all.Even through the lies and the walls.
Through the pain and the sorrow and still I was never going to be good enough for you.
But I woke in the hour of prayer with these words hanging in the air.I did not need you .I wanted you.
I thought you were my person.I thought you were going to be there for the rest of my life.I felt that we would create memories not heart ache and strife.
I tried to be patient,I tried to be kind even when I found out I had been living a lie.The lie was it toldto gain more than I could give? Was it said so you could pretend?or was it a deal to be happy with the cards you had been given? Was it tried but only for a minute? Was your heart true? Or was it just mine? These are the questions asked in the dark ,of a mind not crazy just trying to understand why you chose to break my heart.
Was it anything to you more than words spoken to the air?For me it was a blessing,a miracle,a release from the pain,the the fear,a feeling of safety and so much more.
When you first hurt me I told myself he is young and he does not understand he was not given the chance there was no example to share.He was not raised by a Godly man and only having women to guide and protect him.I had made more excuses then I looked a round and had to put myself in check your doing it again;I whispered to myself in the dark don’t make excuses don’t allow yourself to be put on a shelf because that shelf only holds lies and confusion, deceit and so much more.
You are a child of God not a piece of broken on the floor put your faith in God and look up above this is the source of true undying love.He will guide you and lead you to a new and it’s not a person and it’s not sitting on a pew it’s in the prayers whispered,and cried out loud and screamed.it is in the travail and the love that is felt and not seen it is in the actions of a warrior on her knees this is something nothing not woman or manor beast can give.It is only God that can give you freedom so as I release this heartache and despair I know that I’m ok no matter what when or where My Love will only come from God my true hearts desire and if I can hold on to this truth with a strong faith and a prayer I know even in the darkest hour my God my father my love .
Power comes not from man but heaven above I have more than anyone can give me I have my father in heavens love and with that being said I know I will be ok
Today is a new day cause my God came down in the flesh for my horrible sins he died on a Cross and rose again.
He gave me life and saved me from death so what does he ask of me nothing more and nothing less then what I can give which is only my best .
My faith My love My song My blessings for those along the way .
But not do the rich but for the poor not for the found but the lost ones lying on the ground.
So in closing this I will say my heart may have been broken,but God restored it today ! This is my Renewal! This is my independence day!

Your physical appearance
shined more than
your emotional guidance.
I don’t know to either
be mad or hurt.
You gave the bare minimum
yet took more than needed.
Your form of love was
thru the necessities
of food, home and clothing.
Grieving doesnt feel right
more like hatred inside.
Confusion overshadows
the mind of forgiveness.
Reparenting what was
ignored only comforts
one’s soul leaving
another apprehensive
when in need.

You hype the conversation
with such admiration
In the same breath
you toss out rejection

Let it burn in your throat.
The emotions from your heart, rising like a flood, and pushing to the surface,
threatening to break the dam behind your eyes, a release of flowing tears.

But the dam holds, forged of learned silence— a wall built by the hundred times your voice found no echo, no gentle hand to meet its reach.
What’s the use of a flood when the world’s ears are stone, its eyes, a blank stare?

So you let it burn, this defeated truth, a scalding current trapped behind your teeth.
It twists, while your mind raises a quiet question: why does caring cost so much, when it lands on nothing?

And the fallout?
A hollow hum where laughter used to be, a heart that learns to beat softer, to guard its own light, because sharing only dims it.

And so the fire stays, cemented, a constant, private ache— a monument to what was never heard.

A deep current runs, unseen, yet always felt, beneath the calm surface, where dark secrets dwell.
A fading light, a choice once made, the crushing weight of what was, now laid bare for me. A quiet struggle with a shadow’s rise, on a stage where eyes meet the skies. A constant hum of endless need, Questions linger, like seeds to breed. The fragile shield, nearly worn through, a blessing turned to burden’s hue.

Then, a sudden chill in a shared space.
A word like a stone cast into the waters.
The bright colors of belief now muted.
A question hangs, unheard: Is this real?
And so the mind gently retreats, a soft step back, drifting motion, no turning back.
With the body present, moving throughout the day, while consciousness finds its own distant shore a walk to a necessary vanishing, a breath of nothing.

Underneath this skin
lies uncertainty wanting clarity
fear to put one step in front
sabotaging energy
love from own heartbeat
overload of anxieties
overwhelming sensation
of healing clogged pores

Underneath all the wounds
lies beauty in progress
strength in training
courage in action
love in veins
clarity in pores

Oh brain
why must you
feel this pain
I try to heal
the cause root
even when its
been a long commute

why must you
choose to be blue
when it leaves
for an overcast
type of mood

I wish you
would simply calm
when gently rested
on my palm

Special Note: This is a song that God gave me. It is simple and easy to learn. I’m sorry, but I’m not able to share a tune. This is after Matthew 4:19 Follow Me and I will make you fisher of people, (NIV)

Song:
Jesus said, “Follow Me, Follow Me all the days of your life. Follow Me, Follow Me now! I come from Heavenly Father to die upon the cross. To save you from your sins because I love you as the Father does. So, Follow Me, Follow Me now!

Jesus said, “Follow Me, Follow Me, all the days of your life. Follow Me, Follow Me Now! For the world is truly angry. So, tell of His scripture and tell of his might. Tell of His glories from up above. So, Follow Me, Follow Me now!

Jesus said, “Follow Me, Follow Me all the days of your life. Follow Me, Follow Me now! I come from Heavenly Father to die upon the cross. To save you from your sins because I love you as the Father does. So, Follow Me, Follow Me now!