The sun is shining this morning, and my coffee is brewing. I woke up to the sounds of birds chirping and singing outside. Today is the first day that I can really feel spring on the horizon. It sure feels nice.
Spring has always been one of my favorite seasons. I feel like it represents new beginnings, fresh starts, second chances, growth, change, the melting and exit of the cold and the dark and the snow, and the entrance of the new and the green and the warmth. Wildlife returns, babies are born, new life begins. Spring, to me, is hope.
As I’ve shared, I’ve been stuck in a darker place since the beginning of the year. It’s been getting better and I’m feeling lighter each day, but that doesn’t mean that there are not hard days. Days where I question, days where I doubt, days where I cry and resist and feel as though I am never going to feel fully like myself again.
However, in this moment, in my here and now, I feel hopeful. I feel like today is going to feel good. I feel like my dreams are attainable. I feel like I am enough. I feel like you are enough. I feel like this life is enough, more than enough. I feel like everything will be okay. I hope you feel this, too.
It’s no secret that life gets difficult. It can get unbearable. We all are going through things that we can never fully understand. Every single person has their story. Every single person has their mess. Every single person has their ways of getting through. I think we can all do better and show a little more kindness in our days. We’ve all had people who hurt us. We all have those that we aren’t ready to forgive, and maybe never will. The experiences we have with certain people aren’t representative of people as a whole.
I choose to believe that there is mostly good in this world. I believe that if shown kindness, even the most difficult and hurtful people can soften. I believe in loving big, and showing that love to those who matter to you, and maybe even those who don’t. I believe in hope. I believe in spring. I believe in the growth and kindness and change it can bring.
There is a term I first saw when I was in high school, I believe. It was coined by John Koenig in his project “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows”. This project sought to coin and define neologisms, new words, for emotions not yet described in language. I remember when I read it, it really affected me. It made me feel something. Maybe it will do the same for you.
Sonder: n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own- populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness- an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk
I wonder if I had experienced sonder the very first time I read this word. I certainly had not thought into it that much, nor had I ever sat down and contemplated, really contemplated, just how little I was in this world. Just how many lives and experiences there are. But when I read this, it really did hit me. I thought about how I am the only person experiencing life in the way I have, and I will never be able to experience life from the eyes and heart of another.
It’s really simple, and also really wild. It’s obvious, and obscure. I’ve come back to this term many times since then, and it will randomly pop into my brain at the oddest of moments. But, I love it. I love it. It helps me remember that I’m not alone in this big and vast life. It helps me remember to try and see it from another perspective.
Anyways, friend, spring is here. Hope is always available, even in the hardest of moments to find it. Seasons will change, new life will grow, we will continue on. Summer will come, fall will come again, winter will be here before we know it, and then, of course, spring. The cycle never stops, and we can grow with it.
As always, I send you all of my love and light in this moment. I wish you a day, and a week. You’ll hear from me again on Thursday. Ciao for now.
All of my love,
Khora Ames
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please get in touch with the lifeline: 988
new growth new hope new beginnings it’s all possible you see?
Thank you sharing your words- spring is here, let it give us all a lift in our steps ❤️
Love this!!!!