A sample of Seeds Planted in Concrete
vi. — page 12
Sometimes I forget that we are all just living between the lines of life — between the aches and the joys, between what is happy and what is sad within us. Sometimes I forget that I am not alone in that, for no one lives in either extreme — in perpetual bliss or perpetual sorrow. We are all just playing with darkness and light, we are all just trying to find our harmony.
xxxiii. — pages 45–46
Take your life back from your flaws. You are so much more than your mistakes, and the things you dislike about yourself. Tell me, who were you before you let your flaws define you? Before you zoned in on your shortcomings, your imperfections and your weaknesses? Who were you before you allowed such things to dictate your existence? Before you started saying no to living when it tapped on your shoulder because you were disappointed with your body, because you didn’t believe in yourself, because you constantly compared your value to what others portrayed around you? Who were you before you let your faults limit you, and what have you given up, what opportunities have you held like sand between your fingertips because you empowered your insecurities instead of empowering your confidence?
Take your life back from what broke you. The past is meant to etch lessons into our bones, yet we huddle ourselves within the warmth of its familiarity, we cradle our bodies within its weighted grips because we allow for what broke us to build us. Promise me that you will never again run back to what cracked you, what fractured your heart, your mind, your soul. Promise me that you will no longer hand yourself over to the man or the woman who loved you like poison, that you will no longer give life to the experiences that haunt you like ghosts. Promise me that you will find what it is that will grow within you like wildfire and plant it within the depths of your scars. You will mend. Allow yourself to.
Take your life back from your flatline. It is a tragedy to think that we often allow for an increase in our heartbeats to deter us from new experiences. We think that the resounding pound chiming throughout our chests when we are challenged is something we should protect ourselves from, something that is a sign of danger. Trust me when I say that the quickening of your pulse, the thud of your heart against your ribcage—that is the most carnally beautiful reminder that you are alive. Use your heart like a compass; let it be a prompt for curiosity, rather than fear. Stop silencing your guideline, because when you run from what enlivens you, when you play small in a world that is begging you to play big, you sell yourself short. You cheat yourself of the potential you hold, you cheat the world of your unique contribution, and you stay unsatisfied. You stay stagnant. Get a little scared from time to time, take your life back from the baseline.
At the end of the day, you are ultimately the curator of your life. So, when you wake up each morning—take your life back. Take your life back from anything that feeds negativity within it, take your life back from the things that do not grow you, or move you. Make a pact with yourself to simply take control of who you will have the ability to be, and what you will have the ability to do, when you start to harness for yourself all of the energy you used to put into nourishing a life that never felt like it was truly yours. Take your life back and grow it into something that inspires you to rise with conviction and passion. Take your life back and grow it into something that you are proud of.
If we close ourselves off, how will the light get in?
xliii. — page 63
Isn’t it beautiful? How our hearts can effortlessly fall in love with something as simple as a smile. How one single spark can inspire wildfires within us, and how the idea of forgetting the way someone made us feel is just as absurd as the coast forgetting the ocean, or the Earth forgetting the sun. Isn’t it beautiful? How ruthlessly we still hope, how deeply we still surrender.
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