I think it’s easy to err on one side or the other, compassion means that our friends and family need to know that we care for them and will continue to be there for them, but honesty means that we’re willing to ask the hard questions and we’re willing to follow up and tell them the truth even if it makes for an uncomfortable conversation or not something they want to hear.

Jamie Tworkowski

Categorized in : Health

More than anything, my wish for you is this: That when your awful darkest days come, you will know you're not alone. Pain will tell you to keep quiet, but that's a lie. Life is fragile and we all break in different ways. I hope you know you can be honest. I hope you know that you can ask for help. Did you catch that? It is absolutely positively okay to ask for help. It simply means you're human. Help is real and it is possible; people find it every day.

Jamie Tworkowski

pain real lying

You'll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.

Jamie Tworkowski

coffee song believe

And God must be a pretty big fan of today, because you keep waking up to it. You have made known your request for a hundred different yesterdays, but the sun keeps rising on this thing that has never been known. Yesterday is dead and over. Wrapped in grace. Those days are grace. You are still alive, and today is the most interesting day. Today is the best place to live.

Jamie Tworkowski

grace yesterday interesting

I don't know your story or your dreams or the things that steal your sleep, but I know they matter. I hope you story is rich with characters, rich with friends and conversation. I hope you know some people who carry you, and I hope you have the honor of carrying them. I hope that there's beauty in your memories, and I hope it doesn't haunt you. And if it does, then I hope there is someone who will walk you through the night and remind you of the promise of the sunrise, that beauty keeps coming, that there are futures worth waiting and fighting for, and that you were made to dream.

Jamie Tworkowski

dream character memories

You are alive tonight for a reason. You were created to love and to be loved. You were not meant to be alone. You are not alone. You were meant to do life with other people. You need people who know you. You need to know people. Your voice matters. We are certainly strong. But we are also certainly fragile.

Jamie Tworkowski

voice strong people

Our job is to love people. When it hurts. When it's awkward. When it's uncool and embarrassing. Our job is to stand together, to carry the burdens of one another and to meet each other in our questions.

Jamie Tworkowski

nursing hurt jobs

The dream is you never giving up on your story because no one else can play your part.

Jamie Tworkowski

giving-up dream play

Be loved. Be known. Love people and know people. Be so brave as to raise a hand for help when you need it. Make friends and make sure they know they matter. Be loyal to them and fight for them. Remind them what’s true and invite them to do the same when you forget. If you do some losing or you walk with someone else in their defeat, live with dignity and grace. It is the middle finger to the darkness.

Jamie Tworkowski

fighting hands people

Perhaps you have to have a little bit of hope to believe that beauty can be found, to believe that life does come back, that something can surprise you. And maybe hope and wonder are somehow related. Maybe wonder feeds hope and hope feeds wonder. You see something beautiful and it reminds you that it's possible to see something beautiful.

Jamie Tworkowski

doe beautiful believe

We are all a people in need. We are not perfect. We are not machines. We make mistakes. We need grace. We need compassion. We need help at times. We need other people. And that's okay.

Jamie Tworkowski

compassion mistake life

We're all in this together. It's okay to be honest. It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to say you're stuck, or that you're haunted or that you can't begin to let go. We can all relate to those things. Screw the stigma that says otherwise. Break the silence and break the cycle, for you are more than just your pain. You are not alone. And people need other people.

Jamie Tworkowski

pain letting-go people

There are dreams inside of me and those are mine and my guess is that they're there for a reason. But for all the days like now where the dreams are asked to be only dreams, I'm gonna keep getting out of bed. I'm gonna keep living my story. I'm gonna believe that there is reason and purpose, and power in my life. I'm gonna believe that I'm alive inside a story bigger than my pain, bigger than everything missing.

Jamie Tworkowski

pain dream believe

We don't just live in books awake and dreams asleep. We are living stories, you and I, with dreams inside us undeniable, with love to give and people to walk beside.

Jamie Tworkowski

dream book people

Nobody gets to name you. You are not forgettable. You are not replaceable. You are not your pain. You are sacred and special and alive.

Jamie Tworkowski

pain special names

Love is a thousand things, but at the center is a choice. It is a choice to love people. Left to myself, i get quiet and bitter and critical. i get angry. i feel sorry for myself. It is a choice to love people. It is a choice to be kind. It is a choice to be patient, to be honest, to live with grace. i would like to start making better choices.

Jamie Tworkowski

sorry love-is people

What an amazing thing to feel known and loved, to feel understood, to walk through life with another person.

Jamie Tworkowski

understood walks feels

Love is a thousand things, but at the center is a choice.

Jamie Tworkowski

thousand choices love-is

There's room for magic and inspiration. There's room to live a better story.

Jamie Tworkowski

magic inspiration stories

We need one another. There's no reason to judge. People are more fragile than you could possibly imagine.

Jamie Tworkowski

judging people needs

So if you feel as if you feel too much, well then you are not alone. May these words find you like a friend.

Jamie Tworkowski

wells too-much may