“Until we have met the monsters in ourselves, we keep trying to slay them in the outer world. And we find that we cannot. For all darkness in the world stems from darkness in the heart. And it is there that we must do our work.”
― Marianne Williamson
You may line your walls with books, stack your shelves with degrees, and weave your words into an intricate tapestry of eloquence—but if you have never questioned the ground beneath your feet, never let your certainties tremble beneath the weight of a greater truth, then you are still wandering through the night with a shattered lantern, mistaking echoes for enlightenment.
Intelligence is not a crown, nor a shield, nor a decree of infallibility. It is not the weight of your knowledge but the depth of your wisdom that marks the measure of your mind. Some chart the constellations yet have never gasped at the sheer vastness of the sky. Those who know the ocean’s depths by theory have never felt the salt sting their skin. Those who recite poetry yet have never wept at its meaning.
To know is nothing if the heart remains untouched. The world is littered with brilliant minds wrapped in arrogance, voices trained in rhetoric yet deaf to the whispers of truth. Knowledge without a soul is mere clamor, and education without humility is a finely tailored mask.
Katie Kamara [Art: Carol Heyer]
When pain arrives it shifts your perspective on everything around you. The days grow darker, the nights stretch further, and you cannot, for the life of you, find the light through the fog. Everyday moments that were once beautiful to you now appear colourless and dull, and those songs that once sang full through your lungs now serve only to remind you of better days far behind you
But don't lose hope. Through these dark times, you must simply learn to look harder for the light. It will come to you in flashes of unexpected beauty: the helping hand of a friend, a compliment given or received, a quiet moment of inspiration or peace. Collect these tiny fragments of light wherever they come, until at last your sky is so full of stars, you are finally able to see the way forward.
~ Beau Taplin
🎨Donna Young