Picked for you

You have walked through silent storms,

Unspoken griefs,

And the long corridors of solitude that no one else could see.

Every ache you carried,

Every late-night whisper,

To no one in particular — they became the scaffolding of your strength,

The quiet proof that you were still choosing life,

Even when it barely chose you back.

You’ve come far.

Not in showy miles or loud achievements,

But in the way your eyes learned to hold depth without drowning.

You’ve built tenderness from rubble,

Stitched laughter into places once torn by sorrow,

And planted hope in soil you thought was barren.

The ghosts of self-doubt may still hover at times — familiar, persistent — but now,

You meet them not with fear,

But with wisdom.

You have outgrown the need to explain your healing.

It pulses quietly in how you hold space for others.

In how you sit with your own feelings.

In how you no longer apologize for needing rest, softness, or truth.

You did not arrive here by accident.

You earned every fragment of peace now budding in your life.

You fought for your joy.

You negotiated with despair and walked away whole.

And maybe you’re still learning — still messy,

Still mending — but there’s grace in that too.

There is no finish line for souls like yours.

Only gentle chapters written in moonlight and cat whiskers and coffee steam and quiet victories.

And maybe today, this letter is one of them.

I see you.

You are not just surviving,

You are becoming.

Recently I tried reading 'Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone' by Benjamin Stevenson off of StoryGraph's recommendation. It seemed interesting based on the synopsis, and it wasn't a hard read. The pacing was similar to other stories I've enjoyed reading, too.

But man, nothing about the book was interesting to me. None of the characters interested me enough and the plot wasn't all that interesting either. I kept telling myself to try a little bit more. I read about half the book before I decided to call it quits.

What was the last book you decided to call it quits on?