#Optimism and Resilience

[weirdcrazy]

A journey of Self Discovery

In the hustle and bustle of life, it's easy to lose sight of who we truly are. We often find ourselves entangled in the expectations and opinions of others, forgetting our own dreams and desires. But it's time to pause, reflect, and embark on a journey of self-discovery, because, in the end, the most important validation comes from within.

Choosing Your Own Path

Life is a journey, and it's ours to navigate. We must take the reins and steer in the direction that resonates with our hearts. It's crucial to ask ourselves: What do we truly want, deep down inside? The answer to this question should guide our decisions.

Breaking Free from the Cycle

The cycle of seeking validation from others is a never-ending one. First, it's our parents with their high hopes, then our spouse, and even our children. But amidst all these expectations, what about our own dreams and expectations for ourselves? We must carve out our path and prioritize our aspirations.

Believe in Miracles

Life can be full of surprises and unexpected twists. Believing in the possibility of miracles can provide us with the optimism and resilience we need to face challenges head-on. But remember, honesty with oneself is key. Avoid self-deception, for it can hinder your personal growth.

Fill Yourself with Knowledge

Knowledge is a powerful tool for self-discovery. Take the time to learn and grow. It's not just about physical strength or material wealth; a strong mind is equally important. Dedicate yourself to continuous learning and self-improvement.

Facing Your Dark Moments

Sometimes, we all have moments we're not proud of. These moments might haunt us, causing embarrassment and shame. However, facing these darker aspects of ourselves is essential for growth. Confronting our mistakes and overcoming them is where true strength lies.

Breaking Free from Societal Norms

Society often imposes norms and expectations upon us, urging us to conform. But we are not puppets; we are human beings with unique dreams and aspirations. It's time to break free from societal constraints and live life on our terms. This doesn't mean indulging in harmful behaviors but rather aligning our choices with our authentic selves.

Conclusion

Life is too short to live it solely for the approval of others. It's time to embark on a journey of self-discovery, prioritizing our dreams and aspirations. Remember, change is a part of life, and it starts with embracing our true selves. Let's be the architects of our destinies, charting a course that truly makes us happy.

[web-of-arachne]

“Resilience”

sancarts // @/kfrbs // unknown // unknown // unknown // liana finck (?) // unknown // unknown // @/shinystuffinmypockets // @/vvangore on twitter

[petrichor-moss-and-lightning]

The Mountain Goats, “Heel Turn 2” // Topaz Winters, “battlefield” // Lilith Kerr (me) // The Mountain Goats, “This Year” // e.e. cummings // Tumblr user @girlroach // Angus & Julia Stone, “Make it Out Alive” // Gang of Youths, “Achilles Come Down” // Gloria Gaynor, “I Will Survive” // Mary Oliver // Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” // Richard Siken, “Snow and Dirty Rain” // Lilith Kerr (me) // Lilith Kerr (me), “rebirth” from unloving the knife (2023) // Gwendolyn Brooks, “To the Young Who Want to Die” // Lilith Kerr (me again; sorry, I was running out of material lmao) // Tumblr user @daisies-on-a-cup // The Mountain Goats, “Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1”

[save-the-villainous-cat]

Hi! Love your writing a lot! Humble request:

"Hero, please. Just... Not today." with a villain that's already struggling for whatever reason?

“What are you doing?” the hero hissed. And then again, louder this time. “What are you doing?”

The villain turned away from them quickly. Their hand was shaking, the hero noticed. Usually, they would take a step towards them, take their hand…

But the hero could barely see through the tears.

“Are you angry at me, is that it?” The hero’s voice was shaking.

“…please, not today, let’s just…” The villain stared at the ground and the hero got undeniably frustrated. They were at war with themselves. They wanted to hug the villain, they wanted to embrace them.

But they couldn’t.

They just couldn’t. Anger overwhelmed them and disappointment followed right after.

“You’re killing people now, is that it? You’re killing people?!” the hero asked and they were sure if they had argued during the daytime, someone would have called the police.

But the parking lot was empty and the sky was dark. There was just the two of them and the thick, horrible conflict between them.

They’d grown up together, they were best friends. Hell, they had trained together to help people, not to kill them.

And now the villain was standing here in front of them after confessing to multiple murders.

The hero’s heartbeat was fast enough to make their chest hurt. The tears were dropping uncontrollably and they couldn’t, although they tried so desperately, keep it together.

“What is wrong with you?”

“It…I had my reasons.”

“Your reasons?” The hero took a step forward, grabbed the villain’s collar. “Your reasons? Are you insane!? Us being more powerful than others is threatening the existence of every single normal person on this planet. And instead of getting rid of us, people trust us with their lives and you go ahead and betray them? You betray me?”

“Not everyone deserves your protection,” the villain said. “Not everyone deserves to be on this planet. No matter if they have powers or not.”

“What are you talking about? What are you doing? This isn’t you.” The hero let go of them, nearly pushed them away. The villain was a quiet person, a very sweet person.

God, what had they done?

The heartbreak was reaching deep into the hero’s soul. They had wanted the villain to be in their life for a long time, for forever to be precise. They’d had a crush on them since childhood after all.

But this…

“I’m sorry,” the villain whispered. “We both know I’m not like you.”

“No, but this isn’t you either,” the hero argued. Subconsciously, they dug their nails into their palms. As so often when stressed.

They hadn’t done that in months. Digging deep enough to draw blood. Opening old scars.

“I don’t expect you to understand what I did, I…there was no other way, I’m sorry.”

“No, I don’t.” the hero said. “And I don’t need an explanation. What you did was wrong. You betrayed what we stand for. You betrayed…you betrayed us.”

They stared at each other, a few steps away. This was the last time, the hero realised. This was the last time they were seeing each other.

“Leave,” the hero said. “I don’t want to see you ever again.”

The villain waited, as if they were weighing words on their tongue. Then they nodded. And ultimately, they disappeared.

Months later, the hero figured out that the villain had killed those people to protect the hero.

It didn’t change anything, though.

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

Today, the Board of the State Coastal Conservancy approved grants totaling over $113 million for coastal restoration, protection, public access and climate resilience. The 47 projects awarded today include funding to acquire approximately 52 acres at Point Molate in the City of Richmond to create a regional shoreline park, to construct of 1.71 miles of the Santa Ana River Trail in Riverside County, and for nine Coastal Stories projects that will create storytelling installations, murals, and other interpretive materials that represent diverse communities’ perspectives that historically have been excluded from narratives of California’s coast and publicly accessible land. The funding awarded today will help to acquire over 1,100 acres of land for conservation and public use and restore over 650 acres.

[dk-thrive]

More and more I have come to admire resilience.  Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side, it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.  But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers, mitochondria, figs—all this resinous, unretractable earth.

— Jane Hirshfield, "Optimism" in Each Happiness Ringed by Lions: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2005) (via The Hammock Papers)

[lucybellwood]

"Making systems resilient is fundamentally at odds with optimization, because optimizing a system means taking out any slack. A truly optimized, and thus efficient, system is only possible with near-perfect knowledge about the system, together with the ability to observe and implement a response. For a system to be reliable, on the other hand, there have to be some unused resources to draw on when the unexpected happens, which, well, happens predictably." (Deb Chachra, How Infrastructure Works, p. 209) Another way to look at this is that you cannot optimize for resilience. Resilience requires a kind of elasticity, an ability to stretch and reach but then to return, to spring back into a former shape—or perhaps to shapeshift into something new if the circumstances require it. Resilience is stretchy where optimization is brittle; resilience invites change where optimization demands continuity.

—Mandy Brown, from her post "Against Optimization" on A Working Library

[a-path-by-the-moon]

[agerasiaa]

legacy? no babe, that’s just the trauma pipeline with extra steps. and lifelong performance review I never asked for

[quotelr]

There will be times in your life when things simply have to be replaced because they are tired, broken, worn out, harmful, outdated, or irrelevant. Take an inventory of the things that no longer serve your best and highest good so you can replace them with things which do.

Susan C. Young

[mad-girlslove-song]

@heiiocoie

[fred34543]

The Blossom Tree

It awakens each year, From winter - time rest, Months spent alone, Encased in its nest, It lingers unchanged, For many long days, Charred, icy and blackened, Midst the bleak winter haze,

The body looks lifeless, Barren and bare. Like bones in a graveyard, hung limp in the air. Unwelcome, unwanted, Seemingly dead, It's roots leech the life, Off the soft grassy bed,

Hunched over and broken, Helpless and cold, No one wants it, or needs it, Just watch it grow old, But as ice thaws to melt, As the roofs lose their frost, As the birds sing along, Wings set aloft,

The winter nights dwindle, And spring drifts in sight, A petal begins to flicker, To a crescendo of light, Like a chorus of candles, Each wick bright with flame, The blossom tree blossoms, From ashes to fame,

From nothing to something, From the depths of despair, It rises up higher, With the hope that is there, But the bitter trunk stands, Still sombre and glum, As a reminder of the past, Not the future to come,

Now green dots the rivulets, Of dungy cold bark, Spring shoots of rebellion, Against icy dead dark, Rose stains the blue, Of a cloudless white sea, Hope is the promise, Of the pink blossom tree.

Fred's poetry journal – Poetry + More

[in-tenebris-et-in-solitudine]

[nasskg]

Resilience, hope and going forward despite fear. That's been life lately.

All good though; thankfully I stopped fighting over ridiculous things with my folks, I've received an offer for a different job and quit my current soul-sucking one, and took a 3 week break.

Looking forward to doing a few things for myself, and the way I like them.

[lolliepopper]

walk gently on the

earth for she

is your

medicine

[th3-0bjectivist]

Dear listener, YouTube’s algorithm has had a chance to study my musical preferences for at least the last full decade. You would think that by now, the algorithm would throw nothing but aces at me. Alas, YouTube has managed to provide me with 99.5% misses interspersed with ONE BAND here or there that hits my preferences like an arrow aimed directly within the yellow ring. I rely on online algorithms to introduce me to new music, I have since I was in my late 20’s, and I was recently lucky enough to have the online algorithm introduce me to the music of Flawed Mangoes, aka Mr. Evan Lo. Now, I didn’t know anything about FM until I started writing this post, but I can tell you this for certain: in terms of raw talent and dynamic instrumental ability, this young soloist has a STRONG set of tunes and a very bright creative future. His enchanting instrumentals are just… well, look, just smash play on Swimming, a single from 2024 above and join me down below for not more of the same, but more of something a little different, which is exactly the range I want to see from a solo artist of any stripe.

Evan Lo describes his own tunes has ‘hopecore’. ‘Hope’ in music tends to repulse me by reflex action. Why would I possibly want hope, specifically, in my music!? I’m a heavy metal guy, and heavy metal is generally all about negative emotions like anger, extreme frustration or sadness. Near as I can figure, plugging music that is ‘healthful’ and/or ‘beneficial’ is just not something I do on my blog! Until now. You see, no matter how you slice it, quality music is quality music. I find themes of ‘hope’ to generally be badly executed, too cheesy, too shitty-sounding, or too cringy to expose my dear listener’s ears to. However, if you take hope and drench it in a distinctly melancholy marinade and serve that lean protein up with some emotionally resonant French fries, all the sudden I find myself a disarmed and emotionally compromised individual completely vulnerable to the sonic soundscape I am left within. This is music I couldn’t possibly even broach under normal circumstances unless it’s from one very specific source. Instrumentally, Evan Lo’s work is superb. Beyond superb even, this guy is just a Master of Notes and Chords, and he KNOWS how to use those notes and chords to emotionally manipulate you. Folks, I’ve got a heart that’s just about as black as a raven. These dark and glossy feathers aren’t easily ruffled! I spent a mere twelve-minutes sampling some of FM’s instrument-only tunes, and by the end, I was suddenly ready to reconcile with most of my ex-girlfriends from around the nation (and internationally). I was welling up thinking about distant memories of friendships I’d forgotten, and I was left completely speechless and earth-shook by the beauty and elegance of this young man’s stunning instrumental catalog. That said, I sampled even more and what I found was his latest work, his harder stuff, which I would also recommend, click below. Now, I have a rare critique with this week’s musical installment. This is no slight coming from me, and again, I think his instrumental execution is FAR SUPERIOR to anything I’ve heard recently. Here’s the thing. His voice… it’s not that great. It’s GOOD and kind of mid for my ears, and don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly suitable for backup vocals perhaps. But dude, you’re producing music that’s THIS dynamic, and THIS loud, only to try and match it with your own slightly underwhelming vocal stylings!?? Are you kidding me!? Mr. Lo, I have a proposition for you! Keep Flawed Mangoes just the way it is, but give me, personally, a sideband where you rock the fuck out and hire a young and dangerous lady vocalist with a RISKY vocal range to match the dynamics of your extraordinary instrumental talents. Thanks so much, Mr. Lo, no offense was intended. I respect you for your unbelievable musical skills. Dear listener, just below you’ll find Surreal from his new 2025 album, Anomaly III. Give it up for him, Tumblr! He’s young and talented, he’s got lots of time to fuck up! Remember when you were young and talented!? Neither do I! Smash play!

In the brief time I did research for this post I noted that Mr. Lo is from Boston, MA (my old stomping grounds), was educated in California, and his musical projects are currently based out of Rochester, NY. That’s about all the personal stuff I could find because he’s not a big deal yet, but I can tell he likely will be soon. Image source: https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/02/06/boston-guitarist-evan-lo-flawed-mangoes-hopecore-tiktok