"Give yourself permission to not be good at something. To write messy and imperfect words. To kiss a boy in the bar for no reason other than you want to. To let your legs shake during yoga. To stop apologizing for your height, for wanting to wear heels, for the actual space you take up in the world. Uncross tor arms. Regard as much as you can with awe. Carve out your life on your own terms. Try new things. Reinvent. Try again. Show up. Celebrate small successes. Make sure your identity isn’t based on something you might lose. Breath into downward down. Do the hard things. Adapt. Admit fault. The thing about life being really shitty for a long time is this: it gets better. Because the happiness that follows sadness is never the same that came before it. Everything worthy and good I learned through the lens of an unrelenting, impossible sadness. And I wouldn’t have had it any other way." from Place I Stopped on the Way Home and featured on Words of Women