and with it comes shrugging off the old raiments and worries and mistakes and fears of the year before.

gone is the self you lived with through good and bad, through grace and clumsiness, through joy and sorrow. all that remains is that familiar face and mind, changed now, changed forever, and changing still with a new opportunity to be even better or worse than you already were, fresh-laden with well-intentioned resolutions meant to go in one direction, and sometimes going the other before the first month is over.

and when unexpected things happen in your life, what kindnesses have you promised yourself, the kind that escapes through a crack in the fortress wall you’ve built? when you find yourself alone, cold, despairing, what small joy will you pull from deep inside yourself, past the pit of your stomach where the uneasiness lies, from somewhere near the spine that you thought broke along with the rest of you?

how will you show yourself the kindness you deserve, and that no one else can show you?