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Love this world till it hurts by Leehi Yona
I have been having dreams about sleeping through my alarms lately. The dreams always end the same way – in them, I wake up startled, realizing what has happened, but by then it is already too late.
In my waking life, I hear alarms all the time. I study climate change. I am a budding scientist. I am a community organizer. I am a twenty-two year old who is all too aware of what greenhouse gases mean for my generation: we will be living the consequences of a problem so monumental, it will affect every aspect of our future. Most of my research has been in the Arctic. I remember the first time I saw glaciers calving in Greenland. It was 2AM. The sun was out – as it always was in summer – and low on the horizon. I was hiking with other research assistants, walking along treeless tundra. I could see for miles. Every step I took left a deep imprint in the grasses. I felt the weight of my feet – knowing the Arctic landscape, I was acutely aware that those footprints would last for years, at least. We perched on a mountain ridge and sat facing the ice sheet. We waited. And, then, it came – immense thunder in a cloudless sky. Then, a piercing crack. Before it could even register, five skyscrapers tore off and turned into icebergs. Never in my life have I felt more like a speck of dust. Most of us know all too well what climate change means for our generation. We are told by the most respected, serious, and intellectual people that we will have no future to live for unless society comes together as one common humanity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Then, we are told by decision makers, adults, this same society, that our youth renders us powerless. How can we live with the grief of knowing we have no lives to look forward to? Should we even consider bringing children into this world when we know the world is betraying their own right to live? Today, world leaders gathered in Paris to kick off the COP 21 United Nations climate talks – the biggest climate change conference of this decade. More Heads of State were in one place today than any other time in history. I sat with other young people in these same halls. We collectively held our breath as we watched Barack Obama, François Hollande, Vladimir Putin, and Justin Trudeau speak. “I believe, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that there is such a thing as being too late,” President Obama said. “And when it comes to climate change, that hour is almost upon us. But if we act here, if we act now, if we place our own short-term interests behind the air that our young people will breathe, and the food that they will eat, and the water that they will drink, and the hopes and dreams that sustain their lives, then we won’t be too late for them.” All the while, the United States is still a country deliberately undermining the U.N. climate process. We are young, and terrified. Our fear is rooted in the immense love we have for this world. My biggest fear in life is to see our world leaders act on climate change – to see our governments acknowledge what it means to be human and to feel the suffering of others, to show compassion – to cry happy tears, and then to wake up. We are all young and seeking meaning – we have barely established our own identities. How can we love ourselves, love each other, in such a broken world? How can we love this world if it is so broken? How can we hope when, as we speak, world leaders are holding hands as they walk into oblivion? They are negotiating our futures away. Love this world till it hurts. Foster an aching love for everything around us – clear skies, dandelions, untouched snow, sunshine, the feeling of bouncy grass against our bare soles. Find it within you to love this world in spite of its brokenness. Love it because it is broken. In the face of climate change, love is all we have left. There is hope at the heart of this all – we are young, but we know what the future can look like, and our love for the world pushes us to continue working on making it better. The alarm bells are ringing... |
“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”
― Lao Tzu “Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” ― Lao Tzu “If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with.” ― L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz |
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If You Want Lasting Love, You Have To Reinvent What It Means First By. Bianca Sparacino
We reinvent love by giving it a blank slate; a new beginning, an experience that has the ability to thrive in ways our expectations can’t harm it.
We need to forget about the guidelines that have taught us what love is and how we attain it, how we keep it, how we grow it. Love is many different things, and people love in many different ways. The beauty of love is that it is as unique as a fingerprint – it will never be made the same way twice, it will never exist between two people the way it did before, so we cannot anchor it in comparisons, we must let it thrive without boundary. We reinvent love by giving it a voice, by breathing into it expression and communication. Love needs a celebration of the goodness we find in another human being, in the moments that make our chests pound with excitement and enjoyment. It needs vulnerability, softness, for we live in a world that wants to make love hard, and we allow it to when we withhold how we feel towards others, we allow it to when we let our fear of sensitivity rob our mouth of the words our heart wants to speak. Shout your love from rooftops – do not be scared to express how happy someone makes you feel, let them know that they give you goosebumps, let them know that you want to try again. Feel free within the wild beat that dances within you whenever you are with someone you adore, and let them know that they have created a song within you every chance you get. We reinvent love by freeing it from instant gratification; by understanding that love is something that takes time and patience, by coming to terms with the fact that being alone is much more productive than sleeping beside the convenient bones of someone who will end up making you feel lonely. It doesn’t matter how many times a day someone texts you, or if they grace you with a like on Instagram – do they take the time to be with you? To hear your problems, your fears, to share theirs with you? Do they take the time to be at your side when you need support, to lift you up when you deserve to be celebrated? It takes ten seconds to send an image, or a sentence, or a like on social media. It takes far much more effort to actually be present in someone’s life; we reinvent love by dedicating ourselves to that. We reinvent love by choosing it. Your ego isn’t going to make you breakfast in bed; your pride isn’t going to encourage you or wrap you in warm arms on the days you feel like giving up. Yes, things are going to be tough at times. The easy aspect of love is falling into it, but it takes courage to stay in love, it takes fearlessness to commit to love, for love is not easy. Love is chaos, it is a natural disaster that will live inside of you like a cyclone. But at the end of the day love is also the only peace you will ever know. Love is the destroyer, but it is also the inventor; it is the storm, but it is also the shelter, and this is why we must choose it every single morning, this is why we must fight for it and believe in it even on its hardest days... |
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Nothing Truly Beautiful Ever Asks For Attention By: Bianca Sparacino
Nothing truly beautiful ever asks for attention.
This quote has stuck with me ever since I heard my coworker speak the words. Nothing truly beautiful ever asks for attention – it just naturally exists, as it is, in confidence and boldness. Remember this the next time you chase someone you think you love. Remember this the next time you feel as if you need to compete for the attention of someone you admire. Generationally speaking, we often feel the need to prove ourselves to the heart we regard. We often feel the need to change ourselves to better suit their needs, we often wonder if we are exactly what they are looking for, or if they have other options. I have heard the sentiment many times over, I have seen it dissect beautiful moments and sensationalize less than beautiful relationships. Stop the “If onlys” and the “But maybes.” Trust me when I say that those do not exist within the boundaries of the love you want. They only exist within the reality of the love you chase. The most awe-inspiring person I ever had the privilege of loving planted his feet firmly in front of me and said “This is what I want.” There was courage, transparency. There was declaration. There was no insecurity, there was no need to compare myself to others or compete. The most awe-inspiring person I ever had the privilege of loving chose me every single day, and I chose him. When that wasn’t the case, we parted ways. We didn’t drag it out, we didn’t try to convince the other. We didn’t feel the need to grip, and chase something that did not fulfill us or inspire us. It was natural, and organic, and it allowed for me to feel deeply and confidently. That is the kind of love you want. Do not chase another human being. Instead, chase your curiosity. Chase your development and your goals. Chase your passion. Strive to work for something bigger than yourself, and instead of trying to convince someone that you fit within their world, strive to build your own. Relationships are not melting pots. They are unions. You walk into them with your own visions, your own hunger, and when you are confident in that, when you allow for that to thrive within you, you never break yourself down to appease the pursuit. You simply exist, as you are, and when you meet someone who does as well, when you meet someone who chooses you within that, you thrive together, and that creates a dynamic that is ever growing and influential. Nothing beautiful ever asks for attention. Let that be a testament. The truly carnal relationship, the attraction, the pull to another human being – it simply survives. It flourishes. It is the kind of beauty that lives within ribcages, that surges throughout bones, that you cannot explain, that allows you to “just know.” It is never bred from contest; it is never bred from uncertainty. You will never have to work to inspire it within someone, because it will simply exist within them. |
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Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free. ~ Rumi |
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