You Can Always Choose To Care 🤍
"Choose to fight to care."
Welcome to the Collective World X Thought Catalog Newsletter. Collective World is a one-of-a-kind creative network powered by the minds and voices behind The Thought & Expression Company. We’re so glad you’re here.
Let’s just put it out there: it is terrifying to care. Putting yourself and your heart out there is a risk, there’s no way around it. Really caring, really being invested in something or someone is an incredibly vulnerable thing to do. So it’s not surprising that in a world with so much heartache there’s an emphasis put on doing the opposite—on not caring.
It’s painted as something almost admirable. The ability to shut off one’s emotions and be stoic and hard. We’re told to have a “stiff upper lip” or to just “let things go” and whether said explicitly or in subtext it’s routinely reinforced that caring about things isn’t something to advertise. And if you are going to care, do so sparingly. And with extreme caution. Or honestly, not at all.
But truthfully? Choosing to be soft in a hard world? Choosing to be vulnerable when everything is telling you to do the opposite? Choosing to care? It is so, so brave. Resilient people have their hearts hurt and choose to remain open in spite of it. Courageous people face the world with kindness when the world wasn’t kind to them. There’s something truly heroic about existing in a world that tells you caring is pointless and choosing to do it anyway.
Instagram from ‘A Gentle Reminder’ By Bianca Sparacino
So for the messy-hearted people, for the people who always choose to lead with kindness, for the carers, this is for you. As Kayla Kostyniuk said so beautifully, “You are a work of art, and nothing you do will ever change my mind.” Thank you for putting your softness out into the universe.
When you find yourself doubting your position in life as a soft heart, remember these words from Colleen George: “We have to have the courage to care. We have to be brave enough to show up. We have to open our hearts up, even with the knowledge that we might get hurt.
Because love is precious and life is precious. And caring for another person is one of the most beautiful things we can do in our time here.”
It’s beautiful to care. Thank you for caring. Thank you for being a person who cares.
What We’re Reading This Week 📖💛
“As soon as I fall in love with this person it's over.” — Olivia Gatwood
“It felt thrilling to express my adoration so directly.” — Denny Agassi
“Life is not easy. It’s hard to say, ‘I care about you.’ But it is not hard at all to make boxed brownies.” — Henry Dawson
“How can you pour your blood, sweat and tears into anything, while simultaneously ‘not giving a fuck’? Screw the haters, but you have to care. Don’t convince yourself that you don’t.” — Shani Jayawardena
“Do you feel held by him? Does he feel like home to you?” — Vilhelm Blomgren
“Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” — The Art of Loving
“Your story can be strange and beautiful in its telling. It need not color in the lines. Burn the book instead.” — Felicia C. Sullivan
“You’re bigger than this fight and stronger than you think, and on the days you don’t see that, I will remind you over and over again.” — Daisha Wilson
“My heart is careless and that’s what makes it a heart.” — Caitlin Conlon
“My anxiety transformed to pure love as I watched friends and strangers alike embrace every part of me for the first time in my life.” — Kelly Douglas
“Here is to facing my fears and letting myself be needy sometimes. Here is to being authentically me even if that means I am not strong all the time. Here is to trying to listen to my heart.” — Gabriela Mischel
For more reading recommendations follow Quote Catalog where we find and file the best things to read every single day.
Let us leave you with this:
““Be the person who cares. Be the person who makes the effort, the person who loves without hesitation. Be the person who bares it all, the person who never shies away from the depth of their feeling, or the intensity of their hope. Be the person who believes — in the softness of the world, in the goodness of other people, in the beauty of being open and untethered and trusting. Be the person who takes the chance, who refuses to hide. Be the person who makes people feel seen, the person who shows up. Trust me when I say — be the person who cares. Because the world doesn’t need more carelessness, any more disregard; because there is nothing stronger than someone who continues to stay soft in a world that hasn’t always been kind to them.” — Bianca Sparacino
Here’s to always caring, and then caring some more. 💛🌎
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