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hey you,

soft, mammal-body filled with fear:

the mountains are high and the way through looks impossible.

i know.

but listen, all those things you can’t do?
all those closed doors?
all those things that are like a lead weight to your legs?

don’t give them your heart.

your heart belongs to Someone else, remember?

make yourself a cup of tea. begin there.
already you have done a kind thing, even if only for yourself.

now, look around.
something small will need doing.
some other tender heart-beated being will need your attention.

i promise you, you will not have to wander far to find a hunger deeper than yours.

go, feed them.

perhaps, bread.
perhaps, mercy.

they both taste like love, anyway.

you have breath?
then you have life.
then you have work to do here.

© Liezel Graham 2025

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lovely soul, if everything feels overwhelming and somewhat paralysing, and you have forgotten that you have worth? then may i remind you that you have work to do and if you hold mercy in your mouth and kindness in your hands, some other soft-mammal body somewhere is in need of that, right now.

nothing is ever as hopeless as what it, at first, appears.

you have breath?
you have life and you have work to do here.

liezel