Unexpectedly Sweet

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comic: cat and girl

Shared by Erin.

A Dog Save Dog World

video: youtube

Sent in by Meg.

Still to Come

"There are so many ways out, so many streets, so many houses, so many lives."

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words: she was
image: a little disaster

Ever Forward

 

"Painting over this feels like surrender. And I’m not quite ready to wave the white flag."

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words: billy coffey
image: tracey ♥ jeffrey

Advice for Designers

At least ten things made me cry today. This was one of them.

It's been a good day.

"Success is generating an emotion. Failure is a million different things."

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words: frank chimero
image: beverly hsu

Shared by dear Michael.

Your Second Beating Heart

At this point, it feels like cheating to link to Sugar. She writes a column every Thursday, and every Thursday her column makes me cry.

But this one had me crying by the second paragraph of her response and I didn't stop sobbing til it was done. And when I say 'sobbing' I don't mean dainty, lady-like tears at the corners of my eyes.

I mean that my shoulders shook and I sobbed.

"The unifying theme is resilience and faith. The unifying theme is being a warrior and a motherfucker. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig."

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words: dear sugar
image: jqn boulevard

For the Sake of Enduring Honesty

Today, I share a video and a poem. Not quite related.

"Here we've got robin's egg blue, less delicately known as concrete; here, a shade we'll call upchuck mustard, for the sake of enduring honesty."

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video: nicopolitan
words: i don't wash my hair

The First Rule: Break All The Rules

This post is a bit different from our usual tear-jerker fare, but it did bring on some unexpected sniffles. On the surface, it looks like just another 'Ten Ways to Blah-Dee-Blah Your Blah-Dee-Blah', but this one... this one's got something.

"Go for the gasps. (...) They are no more ready than you, and perhaps less. Jump in the sandbox now, and start playing full out. Find out just how ready you are."

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words: tara sophia mohr

image: perplexigirl

Happier

Do not read this at work.

Do not read this at work unless your boss doesn't mind hiccuping, gasping, gurgling sobs from over the wall of your cube.

But this isn't only sad. I don't make you read things that are only sad. You know that by now.

"You hope the answer is going to be about slaying ten men and Satan, because you’re capable of that. But the answer is, you are going to go home and do the best you can to make a life out of what you've been given."

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words: finding your voice

image: luis argerich

Sent in by Laura.

On Parenting, Loss, and Taking Off Our Steel-toed Boots

I cannot stop linking to this woman. Everything she writes makes me feel.

 

 

 "It’s what most of us have to give a few times over the course of our lives: to love with a mindfully clear sense of purpose, even when it feels outrageous to do so. Even when you’d rather put on your steel-toed boots and scream."

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words: dear sugar

image: te faire foutre

Always Go to the Funeral

"In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn't been good vs. evil. Most days my real battle is doing good vs. doing nothing."

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words: all things considered

image: i will live 

How to Get Unstuck

Bawling.

In my cubicle.

I fucking love this woman.

"She had to want it more than she’d ever wanted anything. She had to grab like a drowning girl... she had to count the years and let them roll by, to grow up and then run as far as she could in the direction of her best and happiest dreams."

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words: dear sugar

image: restart my heart

On Being Your Mom With Depression

"This is something that parents aren’t supposed to say out loud. "

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words & image: moosh in indy

Sent in by Caroline.

Walk Without a Stick

This isn't a daily cry. This is a hysterical-fucking-bawl.

"We are here, all of us — beasts and monsters and beauties and wallflowers alike — to do the best we can. And every last one of us can do better than give up."

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It's a slow burn. Read to the end.

words: dear sugar

Sent in by Stephanie.

p.s. A bit of trivia: I was a finalist for this job, writing an advice column out of San Francisco. I'm glad she got it instead.

Our Little Quirks

I'm avoiding what's actual-for-real on my mind today, which involves west coast farming, craigslist rideshares, and starting over, over, and over again.

A quote from an email from the most charming person I have met in real life:

"Those dudes are VERY lucky to meet you, and if they don't see what's there, they don't got it. I'm drawing a line here in this sand. Those guys pre-bore me."

And so, to whoever is not appreciating you today: they pre-bore me, too.

Draw the line. Live it up. You're a gem, and you know it. Clap your hands.

image: findingmrdarcy

Lonely is a Freedom

Two separate people, neither of whom I've ever met, emailed me yesterday to say this video reminded them of me. I love it so very much.




"Lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless,
and lonely is healing if you make it."

words: tanya davis
video: andrea dorfman

Sent in by Kym from Belly Story, and Christina.

In the End

image: allmylovingg

Something Beautiful

The thing that made me cry today was an email.

I won't quote the whole thing, but I wish that I could.

"One last thing. Something I figured out when my dad died, something I hold on to, something I wish for for you: out of every loss something really beautiful comes."


words: she was
image: allmylovingg

Our Bourbon and Our Couches

“We are, all of us, abominably human.

We are broken and we are flawed and even we ourselves barely recognize the degree to which this is true. And Love is this concept that, in its platonic ideal form, makes over other people and conceals those flaws and convinces us for brief moments that, Hey, perhaps this Other is not so flawed, is not broken, is not abominably just-like-me.

And then we realize they are; and then they realize we are.

But sometimes it’s just nice to be broken and flawed with someone. And it’s nice to have someone to get fucked up on bourbon and fall asleep half-naked on the couch with. And sometimes it’s nice to just pretend we’re not so flawed and broken and abominable. And it’s this concept of Love that is the problem, after all. We are broken and flawed and we created a broken and flawed concept because we have brains able to dream of things beyond ourselves and to imagine the nonexistent.

But we have our bourbon and our couches and half of our clothes, so that’s okay. It’s really all okay.”

Raymond Carver

words: love in the dumps
image: aphasiafilms