all the answers come to you if you chase them late at night

make a good life 

find friends

talk to them often

take the calls and step out of the restaurant

look back through the window and see your life.

make secrets

keep as many of them as you can

throw the rest over the bridge

most of it doesn’t matter

if it does

it will make a good story to tell over chardonnay in the future.

write emails to people you wish you’d met

dm your ex

back and tell them to disappear

dm your crush

fall in love 

fall out of things

give up on nothing

give up on everything

start again.

forget that everyone is talking about you 

because

no one is talking about you 

and when they are 

the universe is not

rewarding you either way

as my father says before he hangs up the phone to me,

‘be good’

as prince charles would say

‘whatever that means’.

go back to the bridge you threw your secrets off and see

if anything else can be let out -

the bones rattling in the cage

the paper weights

from times you took too many leaps

believed in too many sunsets

and movie endings

and clean hair virtues.

believe in nothing except for

making your own luck because

everything is energy 

after all.

it goes round in circles.

watch it come back to you.

don’t buy too many things but 

make sure the ones you get 

make you feel good

try to figure out the difference

between the two.

think about the environment

every day  -

let it keep you up at night but

make sure you get enough sleep.

don’t forget the stupid courage of 

tangible sentimentality

half-drunk moments when the truth

is let it out.

write it down

hold it in your hands

send it to where it needs to go.

in your lunch break

in line for sushi

it will come to you:

there’s a dream out there 

you’re trying to chase

does it exist?

whatever you think - 

you’re probably right.

- Annabel Hawkins

*Thank you to Annabel Hawkins for allowing us to share this piece. You can see more of her writing here and her website here.*

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