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June 29 - July 5, 2025
Painting is my true passion, and I’m grateful that it provides an additional financial cushion to help support my coffee habit and dirty-book collection.
The lotus flower is an emblem for rebirth in an assortment of cultures, as well as eastern religions. It has attributes that correlate perfectly to the human condition: the lotus will bloom into the most magnificent flower, even when its roots are in the murkiest of waters.
Maybe my expectations live between the pages of books involving heroes with ten-inch schlongs and magical tongues, performing grandeur gestures to sweep their heroines off their feet.
“Fourth of July. God, it’s the anniversary of your…” Her words trail off into a void of “things better left unsaid.”
His eyes are ablaze as they sink into me, coasting over my curves, and he answers easily, “Sometimes I think of you.” It takes an astounding amount of effort to keep from blacking out.
“There is beauty to be found everywhere…even in the things that scare us.”
“Because we’re a fucked-up, complicated species prone to self-sabotage, baseless insecurities, and the notion that there’s always something better around the corner. We’re constantly chasing imaginary destinations, thinking we’re missing out, wanting more. We’re never truly present.”
“Like every star in the galaxy tumbled to earth and crawled beneath my skin.”
Sydney laughs at her own joke, lassoing my heart in the process.
But the playful spark in his eyes seemed fabricated—a well-crafted veil for everything stored behind the ruse. Gabe was happy-go-lucky, but I didn’t believe he was truly happy. The women, the alcohol, the drugs…they were all vices to temper his loneliness. Therefore, his opinion felt invalid to me. “I’ll think about it,” I told him, having no real intention of doing so.
“But not all love is meant to stay. Sometimes it only serves a temporary purpose.”
“I’m right here, with you, and I’m still holding on to your heart. Please don’t ask me to give it back.”
“I crave to be inside you more than I craved freedom in all of those twenty-two years combined.”
I used to think strength was rooted in the fight. Prevailing. Surviving the things determined to tear us down. But true strength isn’t necessarily overcoming the fight—it is how we fight. It is not
within the sword itself, but in how we wield it.
“I love you, Syd. I loved you then, I love you now, and I’ll love you until my dying day.”
“I loved you then, I love you now, and I’ll love you until my dying day. You’re my best friend. You’re my queen,” he whispers, words spilling out like poetry. “Will you be my wife?”
The Lotus will bloom into the most magnificent flower, even when its roots are in the murkiest of waters.
