I visited my parents today in Anaheim, and did some writing in my old bedroom. And as I was leaving, just as I stepped outside, the Disneyland firework show began. ✨💥✨💫 I stood by, watched for a few minutes, and felt a deep thankfulness and vague sadness burn in my chest. In a time of so much anger and violence and confusion, I'm grateful to have known a time, a neighborhood, a childhood that bore some semblance of stability and consistency. 🌳🏘🌎🌻Where my family ate together most nights in our home, free of concern or persecution or hunger. Where I could walk to school with my sister, wearing my favorite yellow backpack, and get an education. Where every night, the sky danced with fire and magic, and if we were good, my parents would let us stay up and watch the whole thing from our window, before bed. 🌔🛌🕰🎆 I'll never know why God chose to put me in Anaheim, CA, with the story I was and am privileged to live. I know nothing will be helped by my fervent queries, necessarily. I guess now, more than ever, I just want make sure that I savor all of the good around me, and,do my best to alleviate the bad. 🕘💭📢📝By speaking kindness to others. By pointing out the simple pleasures. By praying regularly, both celebrating and mourning/imploring. By doing better at loving my world. 🇺🇸🇹🇿🏳️🌈🇲🇽🇸🇾Maybe God blessed me with nightly firework shows, safety, and innocence back then, so I could afford the energy, emotion and heartache later. So that I'd have something more than apathy to give. Maybe. 🌌🎇🌃🎆🏰✨ #thefuturesnotacarcass #czugrun (at Anaheim, California)
