sadness

If You Can Breathe, You Can Do Anything

/ Stuart Danker / 26 Comments

I don’t feel like I can do anything today. But I can breathe. And if I can breathe, I can do something. If I can breathe, I can lift a hand. I can speak. I can walk. I can feed myself.

I can write.

I can write.

I can write.

And I know for a fact that writing has the power to stir. Because I am an audience of this medium as much as I am the performer.

If I can breathe, I can write a book that barely sold ten copies. I can question my choice of vocation, but I can also wake up the next day and try again. I can let others dictate my voice because that pays the bills. I can lose interest in writing, too. Throw away all my dreams and just stop trying.

I can improve my diet, exercise more, spend time with my family, just so I could nurture the creativity that brought me to where I am today.

I can do so many things because I can still breathe. Most importantly, I can write this short piece. And perhaps, in a very weird way, the writing itself is me breathing. A breath I’ve been holding for a very long time.

It’s Okay To Hurt

/ Stuart Danker / 23 Comments

You’ve always felt different from a young age. You grew up being told you weren’t enough.  These would be the voices of a permanent gloom, a cloud that would follow you for the rest of your life.

Yet you try outrunning your cloud. You pick up self-help books. You play motivational podcasts on repeat. You adopt the billionaires’ morning routines. But nothing changes. You’re still you. Only now you take cold showers and meditate as soon as you wake up.

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