09/13/2025
By Larson Langston
Please be gentle with yourself.
Something is off…
a hinge loose,
a door unlatched,
a sound that doesn’t belong
in the middle of the night.
Something is opened
that we do not yet understand.
People are angry,
people are afraid,
their voices scatter like birds
startled from the trees.
Across the world
the air hums with unease.
Something is off.
So when the ground shifts under you,
when your own chest feels strange,
be gentle.
Sit with it.
Listen.
Pay attention to the dreams
that refuse to let go.
To the nightmares
that echo too loud.
To the dizziness
that makes the room spin
even when you’re still.
To the sharp edges of anger,
to the hollow shadows of fear
notice them.
And while the world trembles
in its unknowns,
hold yourself
like something fragile,
like something holy,
like something worth
saving.
Breathe,
even when the air feels heavy.
Rest,
even when the world insists on moving.
You are not broken
for feeling the weight.
You are simply alive
in a time that asks too much.
Unplug.
Let the static drain out.
Turn the dial back to wood and wind,
analog warmth,
trees bending their throats into song.
Feet in something real
grass sticky with dew,
crud and grit under your nails,
sand sifting through the spaces you forget to feel,
water taking your balance away
just enough.
Be.
Don’t write—burn.
Don’t polish—shatter.
Make a mess and let it stand,
like a shrine to everything
that refuses to be tamed.
Ruin dinner.
Throw your hands into the pasta.
Let the oven go cold, you don’t have to serve anything or anyone.
F**k it.
No one will starve.
This is not a season for neatness.
The world is shaking.
The air is loud.
There is an insane energy
cracking at the edges of order.
Don’t hide from it.
Let it shove the scales inside you,
let it tilt and scrape
against the weight you’ve carried
ask yourself why you’re still carrying it,
ask yourself if it’s even yours.
And then….
after the wild current
has had its say…
be still.
Lay your hand on your chest.
Feel the quiet rhythm
that never left.
Be gentle with what is.
With the ache,
with the questions,
with the strange unsteady light, and the darkness that surrounds it, this is not evil or good within you but something beyond that may be calling to something within.
Not everything must be solved.
Not everything must be carried.
Some things only ask
to be noticed
and allowed
to exist.
So be gentle with yourself
I love you.
