opening

Hello. You there. All human experience is normal and valid and to be celebrated. You are normal. You are valid. You are not divergent. You do not have a disorder. You are not depressed. You are not anxious. You are not broken. Nothing is wrong with you. OUR WORLD is broken, and wrong, and disordered, and divergent – from true, full human experience of love and community and authenticity. It is bleak and depressing and terrifying to live under these conditions and our racing hearts and frantic minds know it. The systems in place seek to perpetuate themselves by whatever means possible, in the easiest ways possible – as water follows the path of least resistance, so too does harm flow. These systems seek to shift the blame to you so you feel bad and they don’t have to take accountability. It is far easier to convince you that you are worthless, to kill you by a death of a thousand cuts, than it is to change.

You are not bad. You are not worthless. You are a tiny gorgeous frog and you deserve EVERYTHING you want, TODAY. You deserve not only to live, but to thrive.

Picture this with me:

A tiny gorgeous pond full of tiny gorgeous frogs. Tiny gorgeous frogs who love to hold hands and snuggle and get really close to each other, and also need a lot of personal space. Tiny gorgeous frogs who say what they mean, mean what they say, and trust each other deeply. Tiny gorgeous frogs who live in peace and harmony with each other and their environment. Tiny gorgeous frogs who weep and rejoice openly, together, in a great cacophony of noise and song. Tiny gorgeous frogs who know how to pay attention, how to focus deeply, how to let everything go but the present moment. Tiny gorgeous frogs who know the shape of every leaf and the turn of every stone. Tiny gorgeous frogs who know what is right and what is wrong and how to fix what is broken. Tiny gorgeous frogs who follow their own path, who let others be themselves, and who fill their tiny gorgeous pond with innumerable, unthinkably, unfathomably, novel and unique tiny gorgeous creations. Tiny gorgeous frogs who would lay their lives down before abandoning one another. Tiny gorgeous frogs who know time is immaterial and that life is simple. Tiny gorgeous frogs who are blessed with an abundance of gifts and who know the meaning of love.

Doesn’t seem so bad to me. Come join us (with care); the water is pleasant and the stars are bright.

Sincerely, lovingly, with a giant hug that I know you can feel even though it’s from across the universe,

a tiny gorgeous frog

— march twothousandtwentyfive

closing

nine september twothousandzerohundredstwentyfive

• first published

twentythree november twothousandzerohundredstwentyfive

• wandered way down the long and winding road

two two two zero two six

• a ton of lil baby tadpoles died and this frog lives