It’s not too late to be the person you needed when you were younger. It’s never a wrong time to give yourself what you need. If what you need is forgiveness for past wrongs or acceptance of who you are today or appreciation for how far you’ve come, this open letter is yours to read. It's what I wish my younger self knew.

Losing someone is an experience that reduces all others to dust. When it comes to healing from that, support comes in all forms. Friends, strangers. Letters, lyrics. Movement, stillness. The words you speak, even, can be part of your support system. It's why I wrote these affirmations. To give you ideas, to illuminate the shadow their death laid on your future.

This poem you're about to read is what inspired me to say: greet every experience like a chance or a teacher, if not a friend. Even sorrow has its light, beautiful things grow out of the worst times. Just ask anyone who's known loss, and who's taken that pain and used it for their own betterment, or in service to others.

A shattered heart needs to be held together, and prayer is an age-old ritual that can heal and mend the spirit like nothing else can, or when nothing else can. However you pray, even if you don't, I hope these quotes about prayer inspire you to open your heart, and to consider that, itself, a form of prayer.

For some of us, we only have to go out into nature to find whatever it is our soul is missing. If you're like me and find everything you need in a walk in the woods, this poem is for you. It's a way of saying, "thank you, I love you" to the beauty still left all around you.

I came across an article the other week that made me stop. Since I started writing openly five years ago, I've found a lot of incredible advice online on how to deal with grief. The advice I read in this article — taken from a Reddit thread — was spot on and beautifully put. I knew you'd understand & appreciate it too.

Your inner child is that innermost part of you, the "original" you, that still sees and responds to the world as an innocent child does. It doesn't really matter if you're familiar with this term or not, though — this is an open letter to my inner child that might be everything you didn't even know you needed to hear.

Thinking about death doesn't need to be something we live our lives avoiding. There's a great fear of dying, but if we talk about it, and listen, we'd hear the truth: that "mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things." It's why I find solace in these quotes about death and dying, and hope you will too.

There are a million ways to pray, many roads we could take that would lead to the same place. There's one thing I feel to be true about it: no matter how you pray or what you pray for, prayer is a lot like love. Above all else, I hope this poem inspires how you love. In the end, it's all about how we've loved, isn't it?

I never thought I'd say "I don't drink," but this past Sunday marked six months since I've had a sip of alcohol. The most surprising part of it all? I'm happier sober. And I don't say that lightly. I've dealt with depression most of my life. But after my brother committed suicide, I made it a priority to take care of myself.