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  • My Mitsu

    Heaven has gain another angel….

    A few months ago, Mitsu was diagnosed with anemia, which resulted in a low count of white and red blood cells. He was prescribed medicine to take every day to help his blood cells function properly, and it worked for a short period of time. However, a new diagnosis was given on May 2nd, 2024, when he was found to be suffering from cancer, kidney failure, and a high temperature. Unfortunately, the doctor informed us that there is nothing more they can do to help him. My family and I are taking care of him every day, feeding him through a tube since he has lost the ability to eat and drink water. We are doing everything in our power to help him, spending as much time with him as we can. He is a fighter and has been holding on for almost a week now. May 5th,2024 at 5:00 pm my baby has passed away and joined GOD I’m happy you’re in a better place and not suffering anymore inshallah we will meet again meri jaan. We will miss you, you may not be here physically but emotionally and mentally you are. May Allah bless you always my baby we love you. You were treated by the best doctors I know because the minute they saw you they got ready to put ultrasound, heartbeat mintor in 2.5 seconds they knew tried their best to save you. Me and your grandma were willingly to pay whatever amount to give you the best treatment but you picked your head up and called out mama whenever we were talking to the doctors you knew it your time. Heart beat going up and down and temperature going higher, lower and then GOD called you, me and your grandma screamed I’m sure you heard our screams and cries saying, “not him not now,” I told you to let go whispered in your ear who knew you listened and let go. The doctors took you to another room and we saw tears coming out your eyes and the door opening up wide we knew you were leaving. The house will be empty without your meows. Me and our family will miss you babyboy youll always be our baby and never replaced by another. Your ashes will be here with us forever. I’ll always remember you calling out mama, following me to the bathroom always, bumping your head on my hand for cuddles, always stealing food. Your bird and fish siblings will miss you too, tell mitu your bird sister hello for me tell her even after many years I still miss her your my baby always and forever my black cat. Your cat siblings annie, milo, selena have lost their brother but promise me to look out for them from up in the clouds, stars, sun, moon never stop looking after us either we will miss you meri jaan always and forever never ever forgotten. Hope you visit in my dreams and thoughts always. Thank you for all the smiles, laughs, meows, you cured so much in our household anxiety, depression, sadness you made it all happy who knew cats were a miracle and my black cat was our lucky clover. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take care of you and giving you all the love and care and even after your gone ill still be your cat mom. O Allah, ease upon him his matters, and make light for him whatever comes hereafter, and honor him with your meeting and make that which he has gone to better than that which he came out from.

    Bismillah

    May Jannah be a safe place for you

    Jacqueline Sonia

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  • Oh, here again

    Oh hi grief, we meet again and this time I am not fine. I was hoping that was the last time we would meet but once again I find myself counting down the time

    Like the silent second hand of a watch everything feels numb
    I can’t believe I’m here again but this time I don’t feel as dumb

    Optimism use to shine bright like the sun reflecting off the waves but now I will have to sit alone- can I even be that brave

    How can I even push through this horrendous season when last time you were the one who led
    I guess I’ll have to hold my own hand and remember everything you said

    Trying to feel the feels and maintain life for a while will be tough
    I don’t want to do life without you- like omg why is life so rough

    In the worst times of life you were my support and now this hardest time of all is coming and I feel all out of sorts

    We have talked about our dreams and plans and never thought we’d have to go at them alone but one day I’ll be here with no other voice on the phone

    You taught me to stand on my own and always look ahead and I’m so thankful for that because I am where I am today because of all the things you said

    You pushed me, challenged me and always had my back and when things got crazy you helped me get back on track

    I guess I’ll pack your things away to keep them safe and tight
    All the while with tears streaming wishing you were here still in the fight

    Rae J

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  • My hero, Eric

    Dear Uncle Eric,
    I’ve talked to you a lot the past few years. Your picture hangs up above my electric junction box; my boyfriend and I split custody of your comic book collection.

    Sometimes I flash back to those summers when I was kid when you’d walk up the street toward my grandmother’s house, sporting that toothy smile and that dingy Superman shirt.

    Ironically, in some ways I feel closer to you now than when you were alive. If I had to choose, though, I’d have you back beside me in a second.

    I want to start off by saying, I’m sorry. When you got sick, you tried to reach out. You tried to call. I kept avoiding those calls, and you probably died thinking I didn’t want to speak to you. Or maybe you knew, on some level, that I loved you with all my heart, that I’ve always thought of you as a father. I’ll never know either way, and it breaks my heart and part of me hates myself for not picking up the damn phone.

    I don’t hate myself all the time for that–I want you to know that. Only sometimes, and not for very long. Regret is ultimately a waste of time.

    I could bemoan the fleeting time we had together, regret never calling you Dad… or I could feel blessed. I do feel blessed. You gave me a whole world, Eric. You gave me comic books and superheroes, Peter Parker and Clark Kent. You gave me Smallville, you gave me X-Men, you gave me all those summers of adventures in Boston, seeing Spiderman in theaters together. You gave me thirty years of listening, empathizing, without any judgment whatsoever. I say this without a hint of doubt–other adults in my life clothed me, fed me, paid for a decent chunk of my college education… but you gave me more than those adults ever did.

    For one thing, you didn’t beat me, or scream at me, or throw things at me, or blame me for the family being broken. You didn’t steal from me, call me a faggot when I came out, or tell me I was an evil person.

    You saw me. You saw the real me. You saw the light in me, and you nurtured it. That light shines now, bright as the sun, because of YOU.

    You taught me how to be a hero, just by being one yourself. You taught me how to be kind to others, even when the world is nothing but cruel. You taught me to show forgiveness where a lesser man might show retribution. Most of all you taught me that those who cause pain, are weak. Those who love and protect others, are the strongest of us, the very best of us.

    For that, and so much more, you are, and always will be

    My hero.

    Droyer

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    • Droyer, I am so sorry for your loss. I am certain that he knows how much you loved him. Sometimes when someone is sick, it’s just too much for our minds to handle and we pull away. I have done the same. Sending you hugs! <3 Lauren

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  • Spiteful love

    It’s hard to think that just 5 years ago my mom ended her own life. Through years of battling addiction and struggling with mental health she could no longer take the pain of grasping another breath. It’s hard to look back with love when all I want to do is hate her. Pain, she caused me nothing but pain in her last years and those seem to be the most prominent memories in my mind. The joyful smile of a young girl with her loving mother is just a distant memory I’m never able to hold. Always screaming, when wasn’t she screaming, she fought demons in her mind and let them devour me with her. Abuse, fearing to see my next day, fearing death by the hands of my own mother. I still hear the echos of her voice telling me I was worthless to her something she wish she’d never had to look at, someone she’d never created. Red, shards of glass scattered across the floor, they were aimed for my head. She aimed them to hurt me. Remorse, I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m so so sorry, please forgive me. I didn’t mean it I promise I swear I could never hurt you. Lies, it was always a lie. Fear, pain, loss, hurt, yet so much empathy for the women who was hurt, the women who was once a little girl who was hurt so badly it changed her brain. A little girl who dreamed of growing up, a girl with aspirations and dreams, a girl who had a whole happy life ahead of her and saw no darkness in the world, a girl that was once just like me. How could I hate someone who I understand so deeply. Never will I agree with what the past holds but never will I hold the past against you. You were my mother, you were supposed to watch me grow and live a long life, but I understand the battle you faced in your mind everyday and I see how strong you were for holding on all those years.

    Torturedhope<3

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  • Billy,

    I need you, I’m scared
    The man who I thought was my father
    Was only my Dad.
    I knew too-right from wrong
    But God is my Father,
    And He is strong!
    He’s not like my Dad though,
    Yet, some similarities you know?
    How is your Mom?
    Is she still alive?
    I wish to your place again
    I could run and hide.
    As kids and friends
    Billy I was already perverted
    Some scary stranger…
    Wrecked my life.
    And then he laughed about it
    40 years later
    How’s that a joke?
    I don’t know.
    But I’m better now,
    I’m a child of the King!
    And in 4 trillion more years…
    I’ll still be!
    Like prejudiced people used to say in school,
    Calling some a wanna’ be
    Except my wants changed.
    I want to be a man of God,
    I want to be good
    I sure wish I could.
    But I’m gonna try to learn how!
    I miss you so bad
    You were the first best friend I had.
    My best friend now-since “1996”
    Is the coolest!
    His name is Mike
    He’s from Cleveland
    I’ve even prayed and cried over him.
    I want him to go to heaven!
    You better be there when I get home,
    I want you to meet him.
    I wish I had not
    Brought you smoke.
    I want to be buried under it.
    You were like an exception
    Dad would let me out.
    He must had liked you too.
    Sometimes I think
    I haven’t changed much inside…
    But I have! Hey,
    I know you remember Scoot,
    He told me what happened, at the bar
    When he cried. Billy, I wish you never died!

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  • I shouldn’t have lost my friend

    Everyone has that friend. The one you who walks into your house without knocking or calling first. The one who invites herself over for dinner. The one who answers every text within seconds because she understands your anxiety. The one who sends you birthday cards in the mail even though they see you every day in person but they know it will be more special that way. I remember the last time I saw you. I remember driving in your car and stopping at the store, I remember you sneaking me a cigarette even though I wasn’t supposed to be smoking. I remember sitting outside your apartment laughing and planning what to do to celebrate both of our birthdays because they fell so close together. I remember your birthday. You should be 36 now. Instead you’re forever 33. No one ever tells you that losing a friend forever is one of the hardest things you’ll have to go through in life. Losing the person you tell every detail about your day to is like losing your dominant hand. it’s kind of hard to do everything without it. It’s kind of hard to do everything we used to do now, without you. No one ever tells you how hard it is to lose that friend because no one is supposed to lose that friend.

    Sherry Noble

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  • Don't wait up for me.

    I hope you weren’t up late that night waiting for me.
    I knew the hour wasn’t great to call.
    I had priorities in life-
    I felt my back against the wall.
    Also seemed there wasn’t much I could discuss with you or say.
    And then the moment changed my life.
    When I got word that you had passed away.
    I actually felt my world stop spinning .
    I stepped back taking look at myself.
    Knowing precisely at that moment –
    How Lonely that you must have felt.
    And every day that passes now
    You are in my thoughts more so.
    A better person I strive to be
    Because that’s the only way that I can grow.
    I want to say I am so sorry
    I wasn’t there when my time you did need.
    This Letter goes out to Someone…
    Remember to Cherish the people you Love
    Without selfishness & greed.

    Darlene L. Montoya

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  • Despite My Diagnosis I Am In Control of My Destiny

    Greetings,

    Invasive Ductal Carcinoma of the left breast was my diagnosis in August 2022. The day would forever alter the course of my life. I am writing to you today as a testament to strength, courage, and resilience. Not just for myself, but all those affected by this disease. I write to continue to encourage myself in this literal fight for my life.

    I began to write not long after my radiation treatments ended. I had a few poems written and a short story from a few years ago. A relative visiting from out of town happened to mention that She was an editor. At that time, she had a small side business as a proofreader and editor. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve known her all my life and never knew. So I took a chance, a leap of faith some would say. I mentioned, ever so meekly, that “I have written a book.”

    She was ecstatic! She had a couple of authors as clients and believed in the power of writing. This made me anxious and excited all at the same time. The next day she shared with me her thoughts and encouraged me to continue writing.

    Since that conversation, I started blogging and posting positivity, which helped with the dread I felt inside at times. Writing my thoughts was a much-needed form of therapy. With my diagnosis, treatments, and all that I experienced in 2022 and 2023, I definitely needed a positive outlet. Life had become chaotic and some of my poor decisions made things even harder.

    Now that I’ve gone through the storm clouds and darkness, I’m even more grateful for my life. I’m thankful for everyday I’m blessed to see. Living with purpose and the hope of the future and whatever life has in store . My desire now is to spread a message of self-love, peace and light. To take back that which we often lose when dealing with a sickness such as cancer, our autonomy.

    Yours Truly,

    Danyelle L. Walker

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • Congratulations on getting to the flowers! I am also a cancer survivor (thyroid), so I really relate to this story of using creative mediums to push through. Your work has a very regal feel to it, and I’m so glad you shared!

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  • The Power of a Learning Soul

    Hurt and broken
    I could not see.
    No more taking
    only giving.
    I’m now the king
    loved and adored.
    Patient, obscured.
    Like a driftwood
    Now found ashore.
    I’ve left behind
    bad parts of me.
    Rising above
    so found and free.
    At a stalemate
    I fought myself
    at rock bottom.
    Now, at the top
    we always say,
    “Don’t you worry,
    yeah we got ’em”.
    Experience
    built, never bought.
    lessons they’ve taught.
    From good to bad
    and bad to good.
    On second thought
    although I should,
    a favorite
    experience
    I have not got.
    Learn from them all,
    That’s what I’s taught.

    Jonathan Lee Odle

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • The flow is so excellent! I love the lines “I’m now the king
      loved and adored.
      Patient, obscured.
      Like a driftwood
      Now found ashore.”
      It was so simple, yet I can imagine the imagery so clearly in my head. I love the way the words sway like a dance on the screen. Thank you for sharing 🙂

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  • Journey to my soul

    There were times in my life,
    When I really felt like my existence was unimportant, like I was just back ground music while being stuck inside of my own head as I went about my day, in a world where everything was so overwhelming, I screamed inside of the TV, they saw me but laughed & hit the mute button. It was as though nothing was real or even existed, much less mattered.

    My life was one giant TV & I was looking straight at my life like a spiraling, emotional roller coaster some might also have watched as a late night soap opera but none of it was real, much less valid.

    I was just there unattached as I stand there watching my life & family pass me by at a young age.
    I suppose I overlooked a lot of things I don’t even remember.

    My dad would curse God & break things.
    My mother was indeed a narcissist so these reactions would fire her up & I was the one who took care of her during her darkest hours of addiction.

    I was there but was framed a lot from my father. I was called words like “freak” or “retarded” I learned at a young age not to cry out as victim everytime these darkest hours would return to me again.
    I was told to silence my feelings unless I had something worth saying so I quit speaking & shut myself down.

    There is a lifetime of Hell beneath the surface, so much blood & lava I spilled along the way after I left that place.

    I look back at my ashes that I bled now & I saw a mirror & myself & everything that was ever behind me looking right back at me.
    I had no choice but to turn around, to travel & face it all over again.
    The same trail of blood I just wanted to leave behind, I had no choice but to go back to that place of anguish just to find myself all over again.

    I cross paths again of times when I experienced fires so wild,
    The smoke was so strong & I had no choice but to leave that past version of myself behind.

    As the smoke began to clear I see this little girl crying on the porch steps of a home that is burning, it’s literally on fire but she’s still sitting on the steps, I have so many questions but wonder why she is just sitting there on the porch steps of a home that is falling down into flames behind her.

    I watched as the ashes pepper down, surrounding us both I took hold of that little girl & I held onto her as though it was all a strong storm.

    I finally held her face in my hands & I saw her tears run down from her blue eyes as we locked eyes.

    She could speak again because she finally felt safe within her world of chaos.

    She told me that I needed to go back into that burning house & find her mother who is very sick & that it’s up to me to save her.

    I go inside to find that her dad is gone & this woman is sitting on the sofa watching the latest soap opera of my life, crosses built with fire & agony covers the walls & I ask her if she is afraid of dying as she lights up another cigarette.

    She stares at the TV with judgment in her eyes & she tells me that I can do better.

    Everything blows up into flames & it sends me back into a completely different timeline & I was not aware that I even exist in, this is my life now?

    I didn’t believe in God up until now… I finally feel alive.

    I have created my own path to meet eye to eye with God & what that all even means.

    Growing up, I was always a sinner, I was born within a world of sin so without salvation through Jesus Christ I would only burn in hell.

    It brought me so many questions & pain as a little kid I would look at the cross on my bedroom wall & pray to God at night that I was good enough & would someday make it into heaven.

    Some days I just wanted to die so I could go to heaven & be in a better place.

    I detached myself from organised religion all together after going through many dark phases beginning at a young age, younger versions of myself rebuked the thought of God or what it even means to be moving all of these piles of destroyed items aside from what I was raised to believe & finding my own path through spirituality. 🖤🔥

    Roxanne Barrett

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • It’s so wonderful to hear that you’re in a better place now. God is intertwined with everything so it shows a lot of courage to find your own path and do what makes sense for your life. I really like the way you told this story! It feels very conversational and personal 🙂

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  • Greatest Hits Vol. 1

    A college graduation ceremony,
    The celebration of
    Hours and hours spent studying,
    Working student janitor jobs,
    Barely sleeping or maintaining a social life,
    Driven by passion and encouraged by professors and peers.
    This a defining moment I haven’t experienced,
    My college journey cut short by
    A doctor’s visit,
    A new orange prescription bottle that felt like a cinderblock in my backpack.
    A series of events that I was sure would make everyone see me as
    A failure, lazy, without determination.

    I moved back into my parents home,
    Like a puppy without a treat,
    My tail tucked between my legs.
    I struggled to find my purpose,
    My place in a town I thought I’d left behind.

    As fate, or the internet, would have it,
    I met someone.
    They saw parts of me that I was ashamed of,
    And told me how bright they shined.
    They laid bare past relationships full of betrayal and heartbreak,
    And I held them when they finally gave themselves the space to cry for how they were hurt.
    We slow danced in the kitchen,
    To old school jazz,
    While sweet potatoes cooked in the oven..
    And I saw days stretching ahead
    With this beautiful being
    This other half of my soul.

    Wedding bells pealed,
    Vows were written and tearfully exchanged.
    Families drew together to celebrate,
    Dancing ruled the night!
    But not for me.
    I sat at another wedding reception, thinking of the text message
    Telling me things weren’t going to work out.
    Another moment I once thought would be so defining,
    Slipping away from my grasp.

    The more I grow,
    The more I discover myself,
    The more I lean into even the darkest parts of my mind and heart,
    The more I think that my “most defining days” may be made up of simple, quiet moments.
    Of the times I have held myself on the bathroom floor,
    And through all the loss remind myself
    I am worthy of love
    And great things are still ahead for me.

    Lauran Hirschi

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • I love your usage of literary devices! For example, “A new orange prescription bottle that felt like a cinderblock in my backpack” painted a clear picture of how you felt at that moment. I can relate to the heavy feeling of new meds. You used a lot of description to help the reader see and feel your story!

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  • Staying longer at the nursing home

    To my supervisor:

    I wonder how much we remember about each other before formally meeting. Predicting what happens next is less difficult. Working with you at the underfunded rural nursing home every Sunday made sure of that. I can count the times on one hand when I walked onto the floors overflowing with wheelchairs and the malodor of overcooked eggs, and it was not a staff member’s first day. I loved meeting new people, so I never minded.

    You knew my hours as an activity assistant were long, but also that I couldn’t just leave when my shifts properly ended. At first, the motivation was to finish up tasks, like charting attendance, wiping up spilled juice, or finding missing puzzle pieces. As time went on, I found myself staying on my own accord. When commuting home, I would give myself a headache thinking of all things I wished I would have done or said. I never knew if or when I would see the residents again. Many were old and received treatments in the adjacent hospital. When one left, it tended to be for good.

    Staying late let me provide companionship to the residents, who welcomed me into their family. In the literal sense, they all were family. The nursing home was in a town with more general stores than stoplights. You would know better than anyone. You were once babysat by that husband-wife couple who always threatened to break off their marriage through the paper-thin walls separating their rooms. Other residents worked at the hotel together. Still, some were retired professors, who no doubt passed down notes to my instructors who taught me at the college nearby.

    Knowing about the interconnectivity among residents made me want to stay even longer. An aspiring healthcare provider then, it was devastating to witness residents interact with each other one week and then ignore each other the next. Dementia stole their abilities to recognize and remember. There was only so much “Good Old Days” magazine reading I could do to help them know who I was until my efforts became futile too. But it felt impossible to just stop caring. Sunday could never come fast enough. My weeks were preoccupied not with my chemistry homework but with thinking about what our favorite fiery, retired pharmacist would want for her manicure or if the sunroom was spacious enough for all residents to enjoy a magic show.

    On occasion, the break room was my retreat. Located off the busiest wing, it provided little reprieve from resident squabbling, therapy dogs barking, and nursing demands. What is did give me was a place to collect myself after noticing a cart with a basket of bananas, water, and a note scrawled with “Processing the death of a loved one” parked in front of an octogenarian’s room. As my shifts went on, I noticed you and other staff members slipping in silently to do the same. The sadness and stressors of it all made us quickly turn from strangers to friends.

    You and I grew to share a special bond. Each morning, I would find you shuffling through shelves and writing down learning objectives. Planning and executing the perfect activity were paramount, even if we were the only ones who noticed. I soon understood the sense of purpose and satisfaction your job gave you after you tearfully explained the hard times that you experienced in your financially unstable, misguided younger days. “I just want to own a house for me and my kids,” you said. I would agree as my eyes swelled with tears.

    I grew up in a privileged family. My parents’ house large is enough for me and my five siblings to each have our own bedrooms twice over. I attended that well-funded college miles down the road. Working at the nursing home showed me how malleable my life was. When working, I was someone who cared about people who barely knew me and worked alongside people like you whose life experiences were so far removed from mine. But, nowhere else would I have been able to gain the depth of perspectives on the things that really mattered.

    I cannot remember my last day working. I always thought I would be back after my spring break, but the COVID-19 pandemic had other plans. However, I do remember the day of my interview, when I toured the community space to the chorus of fifty feet thumping out “When the ants go marching home.” You, even before you became my supervisor, looked up as I entered and grinned widely, never missing a beat.

    Now, I stay awake at night thinking of all the stories that not meeting you and everyone at nursing home earlier would ensure would never be told.

    In hopes we meet again soon,
    Jaya

    Jayalakshmi N Alagar

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • You did a wonderful job with bringing me into your world. I can vaguely imagine what it would be like to work in a nursing home, but after reading this, I feel like I’m right there next to you, surrounded by so many people with so many stories. It’s really wonderful to hear how much perspective and depth this experience has given you! It’s great t…read more

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  • Get Up

    To whom it may concern,

    I was on day three of my binge. By binge, I mean combining: weed, Jack Daniel’s, chocolate bars infused with mushrooms, and sleeping pills. It was an odd combination, but it did the trick. After nine years of drugs and alcohol everyday, my tolerance was higher than I could ever be. In those days I chased that high, that happiness. Everyday I added new ways to make me feel better. If someone approached me with a harder drug, like meth or coke, I’m positive I would’ve done it without question.

    I was just fired from a job I loved, being a high functioning addict and alcoholic wasn’t something they signed up for. I was morning a loss when I got fired, which helped fuel the three day binge.

    I was living with roommates. I slept in the garage when it was nice. During the binge I stayed in the house because it was winter. I liked the garage at the time, it was my own space. I wasn’t judged for how much I smoked or drank. I got in my roommates way a lot. My problems got in the way a lot.

    Day three was New Years Eve. I started early that day, and by night I was drunk and high. Then I ate more of those shroom bars until I was disconnected from reality. But for the first time in nine years, instead of a wave of relief, euphoria, and happiness – I was engulfed with fear, dread, and paranoia. Everything felt wrong. It felt like something bad was about to happen. I was terrified. I thought I was going to die. I ran to the living room panicking, shaking, and screaming, “something is wrong! something is wrong!” But no one was there. My roommates weren’t home. I was alone.

    Next thing I knew I was on the ground shaking and convulsing uncontrollably. I felt fear and death weighing me down. I kept my eyes wide open because I was scared of the darkness when I closed them. I didn’t wanna get lost in the dark.

    I heard a thousand voices in my head, scary and screaming like demons. I wanted it to stop, begged in my head for them to stop. Only in my head because I couldn’t talk aloud. I couldn’t utter a word. I stayed on the floor internally begging for it all to stop. It kept going. I saw dark shadow figures dancing around me. It made me feel even more sick and scared.

    They eventually disappeared and I was still on the floor. I didn’t know what was real and what was a hallucination. The voices were still swirling around me. I felt stuck in this nightmare for eternity, I thought it was never going to end. Then, like a crack of sunlight on a dark and cloudy day, a familiar voice screamed, “STOP. GET UP!” The convulsions stopped.

    The command drowned out the demon voices. It shouted again, “GET UP!” I obeyed. I got to my feet and felt for the wall. The room was spinning while I felt my way to the kitchen. I remember drinking some water. I remember throwing up in the sink.

    I don’t remember how I got to the couch.

    The next thing I do remember was waking up, feeling a wave of relief that I was alive and the dread was gone. The feeling of death holding me down was gone. I felt sick to my stomach but relieved.

    In that moment, I thought about everything going on in my life. My personal losses, my friends, the job I lost (didn’t seem too important anymore), my family, the things I’ve done but didn’t want to talk about, I thought about everything. I ultimately decided I never want to feel that kind of fear again. The drugs and alcohol are going to kill me. I decided I didn’t want to die. I decided I didn’t want to live like that anymore.

    The days that followed were rough, paranoia laid on me like a weighted blanket. I still felt a demon on me. I moved out of the house and had a mental breakdown because of other traumas and withdraws. I felt low, but I eventually got better.

    I think back on the voice that told me to get up. I’m not sure if it was God, a guardian angel, or a version of me I lost years ago; because, the voice sounded like a better version of me. Instead of chasing a high, I started chasing that voice. I wanted to be that person. I wanted to be strong.

    A year sober now, I can say I am a lot stronger. Fear can be a motivator. It was the kickstart I needed, but the strength I heard in that voice is what kept me going. The voice that told me to get up.

    This is my life, the only person in this world that can really help me is myself.

    Listen to that little voice inside your head that warns you, before it’s too late and it’s no longer a whisper but a scream telling you to get up.

    It warns, guides, and protects you for a reason. That voice loves you.

    Carlie Beth Wilkins

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • I really love the way you wrapped this story up. Saying, “I’m not sure if it was God, a guardian angel, or a version of me I lost years ago,” adds a lot of light to your journey. Chasing your own voice and getting closer to yourself is a really beautiful gift to get from so many years of darkness. Congratulations and thank you for sharing 🙂

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  • Finding Home

    To the Unsealed,

    Since I was young my family had always moved a lot,
    Close or far, just forward, forward, forward,
    Always somewhere to go; never somewhere to be,

    When I think of childhood, I think of spending summers with friends outside in the grassy fields of Germany,
    Exploring cities and admiring buildings older my country, just enjoying the sun for the time it was out,
    For the longest time I projected images of the world in my head onto others,
    As if I had to force things through the filter of my eyes for them to make sense,
    Many experiences brought me into sentience in a way I’ve seen others take for granted,
    And I question if I trust myself to say “I know”.

    The most recent time my family moved I didn’t follow. For a variety of reasons I decided it was best that I stay, so I planted my feet in Maryland.

    As an adult I occasionally reconnect with acquaintances from high school,
    I remember listening to their conversations and feeling envious of the way they talk,
    The way they are with each other,
    All so familiar- to what I had in Germany,

    Envy begat curiosity, so I asked how their friendships started. They replied almost confused that I’d even ask that, stating that they’ve “always known each other.” Their parents are friends.
    Their home is a family home.

    My amorphous feelings took shape in the articulation of my thoughts,
    I was able to connect and recognize how little i knew about my own experiences.
    I wish I had lifelong friends,
    I wish I had a family house,
    I wish I had generations of collective experience to fill the spiritual void in my being,
    I wish I could’ve known someone my whole life.

    I saw it. I understood it. I couldn’t empathize,
    All I could do was laugh at the dramatic irony, the things people will take away from life when they don’t share their thoughts with others.

    They thought the most interesting about me was that I’ve not spent my life in one place. They expressed their anxieties about living up to their family’s expectations, and being responsible for maintaining the family house well enough to pass it on. They felt suffocated by the looming presence of their families, always fearing that they would “become” their parents.

    What I found funny was being told that they kept inviting me to hangout with them because they enjoy the process of getting to know people, and think it’s sometimes more fun than just speaking to someone you already know.

    Moving to where I currently am has made my life better because it’s made me more me. Another chapter in the book of my life. I can’t always empathize with other people’s experiences, nor can they with mine, but the ability to share our differing experiences makes you grateful for everything word in your story. Connecting with other people makes life better. Bittersweet and honest.

    xoxokirei

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • I love how descriptive you are with your writing, for example, “force things through the filter of my eyes”. You do a lot of excellent showing rather than telling, making your piece stronger! It’s beautiful that you found joy in something that once brought you gloom. Beginnings are indeed bittersweet, but what’s important is that you found the sweet 🙂

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  • For Better (or for worse)

    Nothing quite like it huh..
    The darkest before the..?

    The City suffocation
    met with a hand
    asking to dance..

    In the yellow jeep—
    On the lake house dock—
    At the formals and those ‘parties’
    In the backyard with the bonfires—
    On the top of our lungs.
    At the NYC extravaganzas and all those weekend shows

    The City of suffocation
    met with a hand
    asking to dance..

    In the Uber—
    On the Amtrak—
    At the 100s of airports and all those adventures
    In the sunshine of JAX—
    On the island of Aruba—
    At every
    ‘hey how’ve ya been?!’
    but the moreso
    ‘see ya soon!’

    The City suffocation
    met with a hand
    asking to dance..

    In the kitchen—
    On the sidewalks of Back Bay—
    At the apartment—
    that we
    once called
    Ours.

    The City suffocation
    met with a hand
    that let—


    …go.

    In the bedroom.
    On the 6th.
    At the end—
    of my—
    world.

    Paralyzed.
    Numb.
    The City suffocation..

    A pride check—
    A truck ride—
    A bridge.
    The all ‘too familiars’
    welcomed home with a
    darkness.

    Yet a renewal
    out of something..
    Broken—
    A ‘failure-of-being’
    met with a
    comeback story.

    The ocean—
    Mom’s check-in hugs—
    Your ‘small town’ self—
    Family Sunday dinners—
    Where it all began.

    Give it a chance..
    what’s really left to lose?

    Familiar saviors
    with the warmth of
    our younger selves and
    all our innocent soccer days—
    met with strangers and a sense of
    out of place-gratefulness.

    A phoenix in a sense
    and of the sorts
    of it.
    5+ years later.
    Look at this fire—
    remember this fire
    of simple—
    yet pure—
    and the most genuine—
    magic.

    The darkest.
    Darkness.
    Light it all on fire.
    Jetty jumps.
    Ocean dives.
    The unplanned comeback story.

    The City suffocation
    met with a hand..
    this time—of her own—
    telling her to


    …dance.

    —xoxo
    A

    --xoxo, A

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • I would LOOOVE to hear this as a song. I can feel myself dancing to it as I read through it. I like that you repeated “The city suffocation” multiple times; it emphasizes your story well 🙂 Thank you!

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  • The Three Best Days of My Life

    A NOTE:

    Personally, I prefer to believe
    that every experience
    carries the possibility
    of creating or catalyzing
    change in our lives, positively.

    Even lessons
    can be blessings,
    if we let them—you see?

    But I digress—
    because the prompt for this poem
    didn’t ask me about my life philosophy—it asked: what are some experiences
    that have impacted your life positively?

    It was difficult, but I narrowed it down to three…

    ONE:
    The day my daughter was born,
    I began to know love truly.
    That’s not to say that I was ever
    unloved—but at eighteen, the love of
    my parents sometimes seemed as if
    it came with conditions.

    But real love never comes
    with conditions—and I was
    beginning to understand
    what unconditional love
    truly meant.

    When her Hazel eyes met mine, for
    the first time, I knew, I felt it:
    I am alive, and I am loved,
    and I am loving,
    and I am love.

    She made me realize
    that no matter what happens in life—
    love is always enough.

    TWO:
    The day my son was born,
    I began learning how to love myself.
    I’d come face to face with my
    then-perceived failures and flaws—
    and began to forgive me—
    the day my son was born.

    His bright son-light brought
    to me an awareness of
    my own beauty—both inside
    and out. He brought new meaning
    to my life—reminded me of
    the joy found in the journey
    —and love.

    Through his eyes, I had a Chance
    to see myself as I truly am:
    sacred, divine, and beyond
    deserving of the love I give
    to everyone else.

    He helped me change
    how I see myself.

    THREE:
    The day I married my husband,
    it felt like the first day of the rest of my life.
    After all the angst and hurt
    and heartbreak of adolescence
    and my early adulthood—I told myself,
    I’d never want to be a wife. I thought
    it’d be preferable to protect my heart
    with walls of steel—but he saw me
    though my pretend-hardness,
    showed me a love that is true and real.

    Love—as romanticized in film—
    should feel always like sunshine
    and rainbows, no? But that’s not
    the way it always goes…

    Real love gives you
    a reason to remember
    who you truly are—even when
    you feel so far from yourself.

    True love is like holding up
    a mirror. We must
    make peace with the hurt person
    inside of ourselves—we heal,
    so we don’t hurt each other.

    We adventure on journeys
    through the self,
    alongside one another.

    And when we align
    our hopes and desires
    with the power of our love—
    truly majestic experiences transpire.

    EPILOGUE:
    I suppose I could sum all this up
    by saying that the best thing
    that’s ever happened for me is love—
    but I don’t believe that simple description
    is truly distinctive enough.

    My daughter taught me to love others
    and to let love in; my son taught me
    to love myself and find my joy again;
    my husband taught me to trust, and to see
    that every ideal interaction starts with inner peace.

    Dominique Nesbitt

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • What a beautiful piece! It’s really wonderful how this is centered around love and that your family members are the ones who taught it to you. This is such a sweet piece and I’m sure your kids will be thrilled to hear it one day. I love how conversational it is and I like the way you organized it all 🙂

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  • Houston, we do not have a problem.

    Dear Unsealers
    Have you ever wondered if God was purposeful? I found out literally just right now and in fact it impacted me so much that I decided to write my letter on this NEW news. Let me build the stage. I was in a relationship for 12 years , we were married for 5 of them. It was a terrible season of my life going through the divorce. I was left with so much anger. The betrayals and schemes left me completely heart broken. It was bad and I had NO hope for a brighter future other then writing my thoughts down.. BUT God. BUT God friends! He stepped in when I accidentally ran across a pastor out of Houston online. He had me pursuing a relationship with God in no time. It’s been a beautiful mess. But let me get to the point of what happened. I was struggling with forgiving my ex. I was getting ready when I head the pastor speak on forgivness. I decided to pray to have God bless my ex. This was two days ago.. my son just told me tonight that after two months of ALOT obstacles his dad closed on a rental property tonight. I smiled and told my son. ” That’s great, I’m happy for him and I hope he is successful.” I felt a stronghold break as I said the words. I truly meant it. And it felt good to mean it. My heart feels lighter. Friends, if you are struggling with forgivness currently, I pray my story has you wanting to forgive. I want the best for you and to be truly free on your journey.

    With much love and happy to say Houston brought me a pastor that has allowed me to let go of my problems.
    Jasmine Murphy

    Jasmine Murphy

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • Awww, this is such a beautiful story about forgiveness. It takes a lot of self-love to be able to forgive someone else, and you seem to operate from a place of love. As I read, I felt a sense of brightness and whimsy within your words, and when you finished by saying your ex closed on a house, it made me smile because it made YOU smile. Going from…read more

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  • Gut Trust

    Trust is the prelude of gust
    Fast and strong a result,
    Of experiences that crushed,
    Words you cussed for being hushed.

    Among the rust avoiding to be corrupt,
    Discussed myself trying to readjust,
    Occult is the trust tucked behind the cult.

    It wants to interrupt playing in the front,
    While being in disgust selling you mistrust.
    And what’s there to trust, when it instruct you insults?

    What’s just is to be found after the hunt,
    Once the gust of trust dust your guilt,
    There’s nothing to be fear,
    see the balance tilt to what is near,
    it’ll make your problems disappear,
    all you feel that’s real and dear,
    Trust itself will find you peace.

    Zimeon

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • Your flow is so good! This feels almost like a lullaby. I love the way you rhyme words together, like “corrupt” and “hushed” and “readjust”; you’re so creative! This piece feels like a veil is slowly lifting and I’m really glad you shared 🙂

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  • When those two lines changed my life

    Not all changes in your life will seem like a good thing until you gain some clarity. Some life changes will alter you in unexpected ways where you feel that you will never recover and that its life shattering revelations seem to define you in unexpected ways. You can’t see the future into the unknowns where you confidently know the events unraveling would actually change your life for the better. At the time you feel like you will never recover. Your so deep into trying to process the unfolding series of revelations you can’t see how these moments and challenges are setting you up for success! The challenges with accepting or embracing the changing moments coming at you can seem life shattering! They simply don’t seem as a necessary purging of old habits or crutches you counted on in order to make you feel comfortable in your circumstances. You should grieve the loss of what could have been. You should I process and embrace the waves or tsunamis of feelings that catch you fully by surprise!

    For me, the day I found out I was pregnant with my daughter at the age of 21 was one of those moments where life changed me for the better! I had this preconceived theory that I would I never be a mom. In fact, I had already aligned myself into believing that being a mom, for me would be toxic for any child. I didn’t have a healthy role model in my own mother that made me want to be a mom. Some events that happen to us are seared into our brains where after many years, you still remember exactly where you were, what you were wearing, and weird details that you just cannot shake off! February 2nd, 2002, I was having a heated argument with a family member who was eating in front of me and I felt a wave of nausea that hit me in a way I had never experienced before. I was also late. I was in denial that the first test was accurate and after buying so many pregnancy tests to confirm that I was indeed pregnant, I still didn’t tell anyone. Those two lines on each test confines my worst fear, I was pregnant! I had been on the pill and we actively used condoms. I knew the father wouldn’t be a good partner or father, but I felt stuck. I felt so stuck to abide by the status quo of our families that I shut down and the flood of events that would follow for the next few months hit me like waves crashing into the jetty and I was the rocks trying to brace for impact. I just went through the motions. When I really started to tell people what was happening they all seemed to know I had been carrying a baby and yet said nothing. Later, I would discover that they knew because I was puking all of the time and looked different. I felt different but did not realize anyone else could see that about me. At the time, I thought I had truly kept my secret hidden. Now, that seems laughable to me. It’s funny how time and distance changes your perspectives. At the time I simply couldn’t see past my uncertainties and insecurities of becoming a mom. The following events from the discovery of my pregnancy to feeling forced to marry a man who spent our wedding to get drunk and party rather than start a new chapter as man and wife, I was so utterly enmeshed into denial that things wouldn’t work. The intertwining of emotions were so confusing to me. Rather than continue to be the kind of mom who made the world revolve around me, I decide to go on a different path. Instead of wallowing in my insecurities at the impending lifelong responsibilites, I focused on breaking generational curses within my family’s construct to being the best mom a little girl never asked for. I felt this increasing anxiety that my daughter would hate me and would discover I was a mother fraud. That she would instantly know I was never meant to be a mom. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Instead, we grew up together. I learned how to be a mom and she was the best teacher I have ever had the honor of learning from. The day my beautiful daughter was born I instantly fell in love with this tiny human who I haven’t been able to stop staring at for the last 21 years of my life. I remember staring at her nonstop for the first few weeks. That was when being in awe of her began. Her being 21 has been a full circle moment where I see that I was absolutely over time was meant to be her mom. I still stare at this beautiful young woman who is still teaching me how to be a better mom all the time! She is the best of me. She is the best of herself. Though my marriage to her father ended that only made our bond as mother and daughter even stronger. She is most marvelous thing I have ever had the honor to create with the exception of her brother Who is also amazing! I am honored that she chose me to nurture her from a baby to an adult. I am so honored that I was chosen to be her mom!

    We have the opportunity to face challenges and events that change us into something that can majorly transform our lives for the better if only at times we get out of our own way. Although becoming pregnant when I was just a baby adult that time in my life seemed overwhelmingly daunting at the time! Time, distance, and perspective have led me to embrace that I wouldn’t change the events that brought me to being a part of her life! Having my daughter is the best time thing with the exception of her baby brother that completely changed my life for the better! I am an absolutely better person for becoming a mom to these two loves of my life!

    S. Ludlum

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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    • You did a great job of clearly communicating your story and walking me through your journey. It seems simple, but it takes a great writer to be able to tell a clear story without getting lost on tangents! (I lose my point constantly) I love how you took a super overwhelming time and life and found an even greater amount of beauty in it, congratulations 🙂

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  • And we are all the better for it....

    Dear Unsealers,
    I remember that day like it was only yesterday. A gut-punch so powerful that I felt the life leave my body. Pain so unbearable that I thought my heart would break into a thousand pieces. It was the day a doctor told me that my son had an incurable rare disease that would rob him of his eyesight. And possibly his life.

    It was a beautiful spring day in May of 2010. My son was only 4 year’s old. Birds were singing their beautiful uplifting melodies. Flowers were blooming with vibrant breathtaking colors of the rainbow. And I, a first time mom, knew then that I would never look at the world the same ever again.

    The doctor did not sugar coat the news. Instead she delivered the devastation with such aloofness that it rolled over my body like a steamroller. “Your son has a rare syndrome called Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS). He will most likely be blind by the time he is a teenager. He may need a kidney transplant due to life threatening kidney failure. He will never be able to have children of his own. There is no cure.”

    After hearing the word “blind”, I shut completely down, as if I had heard a cancer diagnosis. I heard not another word. I was in a dark tunnel and could not escape, my husband holding me up like a concrete wall.

    We went home and grieved. Grieved the loss of the future we had hoped for our son. Grieved the loss of him ever attending college and having a career. Grieving the loss of him ever having a wife and family of his own to love him. Grieving the loss of the possibility of grandchildren.

    At that time, there were no Facebook pages for rare syndromes. There were no family support groups to turn to. We were all alone in this desert trying to help our son with a rare disease that affects only about 1 in 150,000 people.

    We were lost in every sense of the word.

    In the beginning, we only told a few close family and friends about the diagnosis. We needed time and space to digest and decipher the news ourselves. After all, the hopes and dreams we had for our son were now shattered like a mirror into a million pieces.

    But the day came that we realized that our hopes and dreams were just that, ours. Not my son’s. The dream of him becoming a doctor or dentist or college football player like his dad were all in our master plan. Not his.

    It was then that we realized that God had another plan, to use our son, and us through him, to reach out to the world about rare diseases and autism. To help bring awareness and acceptance to those who do not have a voice.

    I started with a blog and Facebook page called “Hanging 11 with David,” to share our journey with Bardet- Biedl Syndrome and autism. I started writing stories about the good, the bad, and the ugly of day to day life with a child with special needs. I started speaking with civic groups, law enforcement officers, politicians in Washington DC, medical meetings and conferences. Basically to anyone who would listen to our story. I started moderating a telephone support group to be a sounding board for parents of children with BBS. That telephone support group now reaches all continents.

    And then the grief lessened. Each day, a little by little, we saw sunlight beaming into that dark tunnel we had found ourselves in.
    Somedays I hardly recognize the people we are today. Our son is thriving. He is truly a happy and loving soul. Sure, he still has bad days. Days where we all just want to crawl underneath the covers and scream, “Why him? Why us? But those days are few and far between now.

    I often say that God knew that my son needed us and that is why He sent him to our family. But God also knew that we needed my son just as much. He has taught us to slow down and cherish the smallest things in life, like the simplest of milestones.

    He has shown us our true friends and family. He has shown us what is truly important in life, and the things that are not.
    No, it is not the life that we had imagined and dreamed of. But in many ways, this life of ours is even better than we could have imagined.

    Yes, we took the road less traveled, as it was the only road presented to our family. But we never looked back. We will never see the world the same again. And we are all the better for it….

    Maxie McGlohon, MSN, RN, FNP-BC, LNC, Rare Disease Advocate, Author of Hanging 11 with David

    Voting starts June 17, 2024 12:00am

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