I’ve learned to not walk in your shoes
The ones where you took them off in the club
The ones where you didn’t get your feet rubbed by a lover

The ones where you ran away from all that loved you
The ones where you stepped on glass and didn’t understand you were protected

I’ve learned to not walk in shoes
That didn’t belong to me anyway
I learned to not walk in shoes because they didn’t get me closer to you

I learned that your shoes held memories
I never wanted to have
But needed.

I learned from your shoes how much you love yourself
How much you punish yourself for loving others
I learned how much you’re willing to give and give
Until you’re depleted

I have learned from your shoes
With love:that this world has mistreated your heart
Held it in their hands and called you
“BABY. You know nothing.”

And yet you’ve walked in so many hoe’s
And yet I’ve walked in yours
And I still see that I love you

I love your scars
I love your sadness
I love your happiness
I love how you love
Even when the love hasn’t been returned to you

So, my love.
I want you to know that I would walk in your shoes again
And again
And again

Until we meet at a crossroads
Between time and space
And I would trade shoes with you

Just so we can be close again
I love you
And I want to rub your feet
The ones that are tired of running from the love you give

So. You too can feel like love
Because you always have been
Running from yourself.

Rest your heart, your mind.
Your Soul
Your shoes

Your spirit

With me.

Allow me to be with you
You beautiful soul
With feet made to fit the palms of my hands

I will always walk in your shoes.
Til the end of time.

My love.

what is life? life that’s heavily filled with mistakes and blessings but most of all intelligible lessons

you choose a certain route that you believe is the right way to go but deep, intensely down inside you know there’s a dead zone

approaching really and mighty slow you still take your time to believe to do what’s right but what’s right when two wrongs can’t make a right, up there look! at the left light you finally realized there was a yellow light all of this time but you still decided to speed on up right?

through and bright like the red light see this is why we have to accept things we cannot change the stop sign is only there for it’s own specific gain

which is for you to abide by and not potentially meant to be changed but change we expect to always fluctuate but are you ready?

to build up and mouton because you expect for things to always go your way but when human beings aren’t meant for you trust me you won’t have to over think double checking if you’re actually coherent in your own brain

the brain that allows for you to grow and change within all the impossible says and impossible many ways

another thing this isn’t a Marco Polo game stop choosing what chooses you listen don’t get offended

I’m talking about the venomous snake that’s in the grass that you live in, that you walked in with your own two feet without looking down to find yourself nothing to see

see the tricks that many sour candies can cause that you eat which is always sour than sweet but this life is created for everyone including you and me

but i can only talk not preach
this is your lesson, your mistakes, your testimony, your personal journey made just for you to experience and even see

My message to the world would be simple. We as humankind must understand that we are not control of anything. Life happens we are on our own individual assignments. And what happens along our journey is predestined there are events that are out of control, the death of someone close , why are some able to stay and others leave this world much too soon Who we love and nurture we don’t get to choose our families, we become apart of them and they apart of us. We can’t control a person’s thoughts. And how they feel about you as much as we want them to love us , they choose not to. When can only take our thoughts captive. The journey of life is tedious and captivating . That’s not to say that are robotic we feel emotions , we strive for better in our individual ways. But at the end of everyday the fact remains we are just micro fragments in scheme of life. And we control nothing.

In the backdrop of the Wasatch mountains, a little askew from where life zooms by at 80 miles per hour, I stood with my friend on a trail, panting and staring up at a starkly blue sky. I was trying to find peace while he was droning on about the dramas of his dating life—of this twenty-two-year-old girl he was in love with and her inability to choose him. I think there was something about a forty-one-year-old preying on her, that she was letting it happen, and my own thoughts about youthfulness—about how she wasn’t at an age to know what it was she wanted. I kicked a rock and thought about how long we had been hiking, about how long he had been talking.

But did I know what it was that I wanted? After all, I had come to the mountains to breathe in the slowness, and I had selected terrible company for that goal. I’m twenty-eight but there’s not much difference between twenty-two and me, when my grandparents of eighty-three are smashing cake into each other’s mouths to celebrate sixty years of companionship. Even in their experience, they still don’t always know what it is they want for dinner that night.

My grandparents have experienced a treasure chest full of life, but life expands farther than their sheltered, walled in realm of Utah. Their treasure chest is their microcosm, their eighty years. A good microcosm, but not quite enough to have life “figured out.”

That was how my friend put it when he was relenting to my questions about this young girl he wanted to love. She thinks, at twenty-two, that she has life figured out. That she knows what this forty-one-year-old wants when he says he could see himself marrying her. I told my friend that he didn’t have life figured out either. No one did—not even ninety-year-old men who had seen everything under the sun. If they had seen war and read hundreds of books and maneuvered great political events in history, if they had lived to one-hundred-and-ten—

They still wouldn’t have life figured out. Because life is bigger than them.

The hiking trail I stood on with my dog and my friend and my backpack full of water was a microcosm in itself. It was a sliver of the greater planet that had eons of history embedded in it. It was a fleeting conversation between friends on the matter of life and love, truly young minds trying to grasp something abstract about living that they’ll never be able to grasp. Not a single person on this Earth has life figured out, and probably won’t until death.

From where I started to where I am now, helped me realize how quickly we can arrive at our destinations.
Soon after, these destinations become pit stops on the journey to our next location.
We rarely stop to take in all that we accomplished, and rush to do or be more.

I often remind myself to ‘lighten up,’ as I know I am walking in the right direction.
Sometimes I feel as though time is just passing me by while I stand in place.
Then I look back and realize I’m in a spot I once longed for.

Be sure to stop and acknowledge all you have accomplished so far, and use that as motivation to further yourself.

We are forever evolving and there is no time frame for growth. Embrace your journey with a whole heart and at your own pace.

Have you gone stagnant with life
And lost your sense of control
Pick yourself up no matter the strife
Learn to love your soul

Open your heart for all to see
Don’t let anything hold you back
Allowing someone to control thee
You’re life will always crack

Your journey is a learning one
It’s truly for you to feel
If you can read you’re not done
It’s a time to live and heal

Sometimes when you don’t understand
Where the roads seem to go
Someone will come take your hand
And love you from head to toe

If you’re feeling unloved in anyway
Send prayers up above
Open your mind everyday
And God will send his love

Dear Unsealed readers;
You may find my letter cliche in its content. The roller coaster I’ve been on since my illness, I assure you is compelling fiction. Growing up we are told to be grateful and appreciate what we have. I never truly understood that life lesson until I got sick.
Starting my 30’s already stressful. Add an extremely unplanned pregnancy after 8 years of just me and my son! Topped with a move, promotion, and progressing strange medical issues. Fast forward 7 years, surviving breast cancer every day. Along with navigating my life around my paralysis due to a rare side effect of cancer, Paraneoplastic Syndrome. Both my children live with my mom, who I’m grateful for. It’s the smaller things we forget as a “normal able body” person. I’m talking about things even as I type them that seem silly; using the bathroom when and where you want, standing up on your own, wiping your own vagina, driving, stairs, not being limited to public places because of stairs or small doors! Don’t get me wrong, I have always been a person who appreciated and was grateful for everything. My lesson is to show your gratitude and appreciation. Telling people in your life how much they mean to you. Thank often!

Now that I look in the mirror and I can contemplate all my versions of the past at the same time, Now that I can see myself in my own reflexes of when I was 8, 13, 16 and 20 years old and I find the tears without drying on my face And I see the doubts sprouting in my eyes, and I can smell the frustration, and my skin bristles when the past touches my neck with the uncertainty that stole my air then… Now that I’m 24 years old and I don’t regret anything, I would like to send me letters disguised as hugs through the mirror, Letters that say that although some pains do not go away, I was able to turn them into parts of the road, steps that helped me overcome obstacles. I want to hug those girls and tell them that we published our first book of poetry, and the second and third and those that followed; And I will have to confess that in the end, although we enjoy university and fall in love with academic writing and see our name and our words published in international magazines, we were not mistaken when we decided to leave that path. I want my hug to tell my previous versions that we did it and we were happy, we were happy when we made community short films, when we lost the fear of speaking in public; That we were happy when they recognized my face on the street and thanked me for my poems. I want my hug to tell those girls with flooded eyes, with suicide in the head, with nightmares about abuse, with the addition to the cigarette and with the traumas, that everything happens, that we become Ele Vergara, That although grandpa is no longer there, I would see this woman with pride and that we find every day, paths that tie us to life.

This is the time.
Stop waiting for payday, to lose 5 more pounds, for next year, when the kids are a little older, when you have more time off from work, for the holidays, to send that text, make that call, tell them how you feel, apologize, give that hug, make that leap, ask for help, quit your job, get that divorce, to eat the cake, to buy the dress, put on the bathing suit, laugh, love, live. This is the time.

You are stronger and wiser than you know
Your thoughts are stalking you
do not queue any hue that’s not meant for you
People’s opinions of you are their own.
You are stronger than you were yesterday.
continue to forgive yourself for not being able to control the horrific actions of others.
Self-love is necessary for your healing.
It is putting you back together whole and true.
forgive any past actions by acknowledging how they have not served you well.
You will continue to trust the process and your progress.
You will not let the fear of being taken advantage of scare you to stillness.
You will stand up for yourself and tell the truth.
You will do it with dignity and respect.
You will be vulnerable even when it makes you uncomfortable.

Dear Unsealed,
I have learned so many things about life. I will be 75 years old on September 18, 2024. I have seen it all, the good, the bad, the ugly and still move forward with life for as long as I can live out my life with my disabilities of getting old. My brain works well, but my body has slowed down a lot since I had covid 2021.
The major life lesson I have learned is that I should not let guys talk me into fast romance or marriage or moving in on the third date. That may sound ‘wacky,’ but it truly is more helpful to not be boy crazy beginning at 8 years old. I had my first boyfriend at 8 years old. His name was Eric. He was in my second-grade class. We were friends so I thought, then he broke up with me. I ran into my parents’ house crying like a baby. Mom thought that I was physically hurt. I yelled at her, “Mom, Eric broke up with me. He told me to leave him alone. He did not like me. My hair was too curly. I was so upset, mom, I peed in my pants.” Mom looked at me rolling her eyes, tossed her head back, “My dear child, it’s going to be okay. Eric and his parents are moving to New York City next week. Eric broke up with you because he is a baby too and that is the only way he knew to move without hurting you. You have your whole life ahead of you, Vicki.” I sighed, “Okay mom.”
Growing up in eight decades, I kept falling in love and out of love not learning my lessons. My advice to the world is to continue your education. Do not let a ‘dude’ talk to you out of going to college. Do not let jealous people knock your dreams into the dirt. More than once the person trying to crush your dreams is a jealous, fearful person who does not care about you. Follow your dreams of life and focus on yourself as a woman. One needs to love oneself to fully love someone another human being as to live with another human being.
I was raped at 16 years old by five guys on the football team. I had to sweep it under the rug and try to wash away the scariest party night I had ever experienced. The guys were calling me an Indian squaw, stupid ‘whore’, and yelling, “You are no good.” I was devastated.
I kept dating men but had not learned the lesson that I did not need a man.
I studied art, journalism, Business union management, computers, and other subjects of interest. Boys were always barking up my tree. I should have been pickier or just lived by myself.
I married in the 80s. I had no plans for marriage at 30 nor to have children at that time. He swindled me into marrying him and having babies. The lesson I learned from that disastrous marriage is we had nothing in common and I should have ignored the ‘dude’.
We divorced, but I remarried an artist this time. That ended in April 2000 in domestic violence,
After we divorced, I had all these musicians barking up my alley. I followed one to Austin, Texas. I left an excellent job in computers with good retirement. He moved back to LA, and I stayed because my auntie was in her 90s and I wanted to be with her. A lesson from this is my family in Austin were strangers to me. I had not seen them in 40 years. Never move across country on a whim to follow a ‘dude’ to his destiny when it’s probably not your destiny. Check your family out that are strangers and only remember you as a little curly headed throwing tantrums child. Just because they are family does not mean they are your best friend.
I got involved with a ‘dude’ who moved in with me after the third date. I do not advise anyone to do that. I collaborated with the man.
My letter will end here as the chapters of my life are extensive with heartache, pain, joy, laughs, and life ‘happens’ experiences.
My final note to the world is, “As a woman please do not let men interfere with your beauty or your well-being. If they show one bit of jealousy or start dictating your life to you, walk away before the years pass and you say at 74, “OMG! I wish I would ‘of’ or could ‘of’ known about life before all those broken relationships of wrongdoing men ever came into fruition. Watch for red flags to not get involved with a narcissist person period.”

A Message Through Time
Marli Wright

If I could send a message across sea to shining sea,
How would I convey my advice in just one piece?
What have I learned in this short life so dear,
That is important for everyone to hear?
I suppose it would be to cherish each moment,
The good, the bad, and those moments hard to bear.
Laugh and be present, and cry in your grief,
Follow your dreams and never look back in disbelief.
Love with a heart that fears nothing at all,
Give freely of yourself and let others give in return.
Hug your loved ones tighter each day,
And thank God for another moment they stay.
Cherish the heartbeat of an unborn child,
Learn from the old soul, who offers a final smile.
Take it from someone who has loved and lost,
This unbearable grief of a child’s loss.
Live each moment as if they can see,
And make yourself proud of the person you’d want them to be.
Remember, in an instant, life can be gone,
So cherish it deeply before it’s withdrawn.