Said the Greeks, Prometheus kneaded humans out of clay and
so we are mere mortal beings.
And there are some rains that can wash clay down to mud,
we hide beneath trees and propped up wood but it does not help.

There are chinks in our armor and indents in our skin.
If pressed too hard
we collapse.

Breathe, they say, take big breaths of air and fill your lungs and then you know
you are alive.
But to the boy who exhaled oxygen into another boy’s lungs,
air is nothing but particles to inflate a chest whether it’s breathing
or not.

One day a seventeen year old boy fell and never got back up.

The doctors said his heart didn’t contract so the air in his lungs
never traveled down his body, fingers, arms, legs, toes.
What is there to do when clay bodies are built with errors in the
blueprint?

Bake us in a kiln at the temperature of the sun and shield us with
glazed pottery paint.
We are tiny small warriors just trying to swim in a flood that will kill us,
melt in a fire trying to burn us.

But said the Greeks, Prometheus kneaded humans out of clay, and nothing else.
We are fallible beings that will always get stuck under rain that
melts clay into mud,
And they are fallible Gods that misread a blueprint.

What an inconvenient, fallible world we live in.

―
“Clay Pottery”, Steffanee Wang

I met him during “Patient and Caregivers Week”. He was a patient, and I was a volunteer, and he came and sat down with us to fold some origami. Here’s one thing I should point out: he didn’t look sick. He didn’t look like someone who went through chemo and when he spoke, he didn’t sound like someone who was fighting leukemia. In fact, the only physical part of his appearance that gave us a glimpse to the fact that he might’ve been sick was his hair, or more specifically his lack thereof. He was young, and it showed in the way he spoke, the cadence of his voice jumping and rising and falling as he told joke after joke, and the glint in his eyes when he got to the punch line and oh, that’s my cue to laugh, and the verbal frustration he released when he realized that folding a crane was really, quite difficult.
―
“Not all things go to hospitals to die” by SW

‎Don’t say anything, because I see that you understand me, and I am afraid of your understanding. I have such a fear of finding another like myself, and such a desire to find one. I am so utterly lonely, but I also have such a fear that my isolation be broken through, and I no longer be the head and ruler of my universe. I am in great terror of your understanding by which you penetrate into my world; and then I stand revealed and I have to share my kingdom with you.
―
Anais Nin (via micaceous)

(Source: 1000scientists, via micaceous)

You don’t know anyone at the party, so you don’t want to go. You don’t like cottage cheese, so you haven’t eaten it in years. This is your choice, of course, but don’t kid yourself: it’s also the flinch.

Your personality is not set in stone. You may think a morning coffee is the most enjoyable thing in the world, but it’s really just a habit. Thirty days without it, and you would be fine. You think you have a soul mate, but in fact you could have had any number of spouses. You would have evolved differently, but been just as happy.

You can change what you want about yourself at any time. You see yourself as someone who can’t write or play an instrument, who gives in to temptation or makes bad decisions, but that’s really not you. It’s not ingrained. It’s not your personality. Your personality is something else, something deeper than just preferences, and these details on the surface, you can change anytime you like.

If it is useful to do so, you must abandon your identity and start again. Sometimes, it’s the only way.

Set fire to your old self. It’s not needed here. It’s too busy shopping, gossiping about others, and watching days go by and asking why you haven’t gotten as far as you’d like. This old self will die and be forgotten by all but family, and replaced by someone who makes a difference.

Your new self is not like that. Your new self is the Great Chicago Fire—overwhelming, overpowering, and destroying everything that isn’t necessary.

―
Julien Smith (via micaceous)

(via micaceous)