Advice to Myself Addressing Anger

**names have been changed to protect those involved**

Dear Mini-Me,
There are a few things about anger that I want to share with you. First is that you are going to be angry, and that is okay. Holding back ager isn't healthy. I wish that I could tell you that everything is going to be alright. but, that would be the biggest lie I ever told. You are going to get angry; you are human. The second thing that I want to tell you is that you need to communicate this anger somehow. A big mistake that I've made is keeping my feelings to myself. But in doing this I bottle myself up like a shaken can of soda, and eventually someone tried to open the can. So... be angry. There are healthy ways to show your anger. A way is to write about it (this is my favorite way). By writing about your anger you can really take it out on the page. Use red marker, use fowl words. No one else will read it. The third and probably most important thing about anger that i need to tell you is that even though you deserve to be angry at Kevin and Sarah and even your father, you have to forgive them. forgiveness is an important part of the healing process and you will never be able to heal from how they hurt you if you don't forgive them for the terrible things they've done. now that I've had my rant I wish you the best of luck.
with new love,
me.

I am a Lion

I will not be an old lady lying on my death bed saying that I wish I had a full back tattoo of rainbows and peacocks dancing under the moon. I will not be that lady saying I wish I colored my hair a million colors of crazy reds and golds and blues that drew the attention of every eye in the room because I was crazy enough to bend the social norm. I will not be wishing I had traveled the world; to the rolling hills of Ireland or the jungles of Africa. And I will definitely not be lying at deaths door regretting that I didn't marry the girl I loved because the world told me I couldn't. I will be that old lady happy with the good and the bad, the love and the losses, the experiences and the feeling that I was lucky enough to be a part of it. I do not care for what society thinks, I have lived once and I do not care. I will have my bad days and my good days because after all I am human and of this life I cannot fathom what we are here for. For the better and the worse I will experience it all. I am the power and the one to be in charge of me. And as in the words of Counting Crows: I am a child of fire, I a am a lion, I have desires and I was born inside the sun this morning.