Contradicting Species

We sin with the thought of saying sorry later, as if words could wash away the act. We love those who won’t love us back, pouring ourselves into empty vessels, knowing it’s foolish but doing it anyway. We let fear lock us in place, keeping us from what we truly want, as if standing still were safer than the risk of moving forward.

We are contradictions, every one of us. We don’t do what we mean to do. We say we’ll change, but we don’t. We swear we’ll be better, but we fall back into bad habits. We don’t appreciate the ones we need most until they’re gone, and then we carry the weight of that regret to our own graves. No wonder we struggle to live together in peace. We’re too busy fighting ourselves to see clearly.

We build walls instead of bridges, and then we wonder why we feel alone. We demand perfection from others but forgive ourselves too easily. We chase after things that don’t matter and ignore the things that will benefit our future. We are a mess of wants and fears, of good intentions and bad decisions.

We will never be what someone else wants us to be. We can try, but it’s a lost battle. We can only be what we are—stubborn, and alive. Simple and hard, like all truths worth knowing.

That is enough. Maybe being human, with all its contradictions and failures, is enough. To love imperfectly, to live imperfectly, and to find some small measure of peace in that.

It’s not much, but it’s all you need.