she must have pressed call instead of text and then just waited. the voicemail is three minutes and forty seconds of her singing something quietly to herself that i don't fully recognize, a bit of something from a show she watches and then something that might be original, it's hard to tell.

she doesn't know i have it. she doesn't know i play it sometimes when the day has been hard. she was just a kid sitting with a phone waiting for her dad, filling the waiting with a song the way children do without thinking about whether anyone is listening.

A few months ago, I was going through severe anxiety and went to see my GP. It turned out that I had type 2 diabetes with severe insulin resistance. My fasting blood glucose was 26.7 mmol/L. For context, I'm just 28. Multiple organs were underperforming, and my kidneys were close to shutting down. My skin was coarse like a fine grain sandpaper, developed acanthosis, and nearly bald. They immediately started rescue therapy.

I responded fairly to the treatment. After thousands of pills, and hundreds of blood tests, today I had my first episode of hypoglycaemia. I checked my blood glucose, and it was 6.3 mmol/L. Finally, we won...maybe.

We're not an emotionally expressive family. we love each other obviously but we don't say it unprompted. phone calls have always been for logistics.

I called him yesterdat with absolutely nothing to report. said i was just thinking about him and wanted to chat. there was a brief pause where i could tell he was checking internally if something was wrong and then he relaxed and we just talked.

He told me about a documentary he'd watched. i told him about something funny that happened at work. we talked about his garden and a book he's reading and nothing mattered and all of it mattered and when we hung up i sat with the warmth of it for the rest of the evening. Heart is so full tbh.

After a few years of trying to get the right meds for my ADHD, I happened to mention how tired I’ve been. It turned into a convo about how unbelievably difficult it has always been for me to wake up. Multiple loud alarms, a timed lamp that turns on directly in my face, an electric shock alarm that I will often sleep through until it escalates to where my arm is jumping off the bed with each zap, then I press snooze and fall right back asleep, rinse and repeat for an hour or more. All of these, every day. It’s literally insane. I’ve told many other doctors and they have been useless about it.

She suggested I try this weird brand name medicine for my ADHD that you take at night and it releases in the morning, saying it might help both issues.

The morning after I took it I just… woke up… around 6:30am. Not even from an alarm, just sunlight through a crack in the blinds. I turned to my husband and was like woah! Is this how you wake up every morning, like you just wake up and you’re awake?? I am absolutely shook. I’ve been taking it for a couple weeks now and even on tougher days I might hit snooze once and it might feel hard to open my eyes, but it is possible!

I’ve been getting 45-90 minutes walking on the treadmill every morning before I even have to make the kids breakfast. The extra time in the morning and starting my day with a positive momentum has been completely life changing. I’m so happy I could cry.

My gf and I both 21 have been together for 4 years.

I have dealt with SA, mental health issues and more. She has stuck by my side and has never made me feel like a burden. She makes me want to get up in the morning even when it’s hard. We play games together, do crafts and go on long walks. She makes me feel so seen and happy.

Life isn’t easy, but as someone who thought I’d forever be alone and depressed, I can say there’s hope you can find your person.

Please don’t stop fighting my beauties, life is worth living.

the vets loved her alot and said she was a good cat, and that she behaved well

Context, he is not a note writer. he is not a grand gesture person. he is steady and reliable and shows love by doing things quietly without drawing attention to the doing.

Opened my lunch at my desk and the note was folded under my sandwich. Simple I love you note. 15 years and I still fold. Love him so much!

​

Don't lose hope is the moral of the story! ❤️

16"w x 20"h Acrylic on canvas painting commissioned by a collector who specified the colors and theme but otherwise allowed me to paint from imagination. It was a lot of fun and very fulfilling! Happy she's happy!! ✨️😄🌟😊✨️💖🦋✨️🖼✨️🥳💕✨️

It sounds like a tiny thing, but for the past six months or so, brewing coffee in the morning has been my sacred quiet time before jumping into a chaotic workday of digital ad testing and client messages. I’ve slowly been experimenting with different bean origins, grind sizes, and water temperatures, mostly treating it as a fun and grounding hobby.

I think I finally figured out the exact sweet spot this morning. I went with a slightly finer medium grind to cut down on that harsh bitterness, kept my water just off the boil so it wouldn't scorch the grounds, and actually weighed out my water to hit a clean one-to-sixteen ratio. Giving it a full 45 seconds to bloom first made a huge difference too.

The morning was rainy and I wasn't feeling super motivated for work, so taking my time with the pour-over was really nice. I just sat on the couch while a tech podcast played quietly in the background.

When I took that first sip, it was genuinely perfect for my taste. It was smooth, and tasted so clean. I just sat there in silence for ten minutes enjoying the warmth of the mug, listening to the rain, and appreciating the quiet moment before opening my laptop. It was such a simple, cozy win, but it completely set the tone for my whole day and put a massive smile on my face.

I found this little box in my travels. Today I painted it as a gift for my daughter. I hope she likes it

Turns out, it was just the way the edge of my purple pillow was sitting on the vein in my arm when I lay on my stomach. *phew*

I put my other hand there to keep the pillow from sitting on the vein and *voila* no numb hand!

i'd taken a wrong turn twice and given up on the original plan. the restaurant was empty except for an old man reading a newspaper at the back who turned out to be the owner, the chef, and apparently the most interesting person i'd meet on the entire trip.

he brought food i didn't order because he said it was better than what i'd asked for, which it was. then he sat down and asked where i was from and what i'd seen and proceeded to tell me the actual history of the neighborhood we were in, not the version in the guidebooks, the one that happened to the real people who lived there.

i was there for an hour and a half. he refused to let me pay the full amount. i left his restaurant knowing something about that city that isn't written anywhere and feeling the particular warmth of having been completely taken care of by a stranger who expected nothing back from the taking care..

I just opened my Gmail inbox and found a message from someone thanking me for some career advice I gave to them six months ago.

I had completely forgotten about it, but turns out it actually helped them out. Getting a totally unexpected thank you email written so genuinely months down the line is such an incredible unexpected hit of happiness.

Evidence that doing good things to others makes the world a better place.

I started drinking excessively about 15 years ago. Earlier this year, I stopped drinking to the point of getting blackout drunk nearly every day and started doing small things to better myself.

One of the things I started doing was writing down three good things I did that day before bed. That was basically to show myself that not everything is terrible, and that I'm actually doing some good things as well. I realized that "no alcohol" was on there consistently, so I wanted to one-up that to be "no alcohol and stayed under my calorie limit".

Eventually that was doable too. My support system is small, but consistent. One of my close friends has been working to lose weight too, so I said I'd use my stationary bike for at least 10 minutes a day in solidarity.

I left my fitness app to have a 30 minute goal.

Well, my app has a confetti animation when all three fitness goals are reached (steps, exercise time, exercise calories).

Today, I realized I have been extremely consistent (at least 5 days a week) in hitting all three of those for over a month now. So I sat and thought about it.

I like the digital confetti.

Seeing those little pixels put on a little celebration just tickles my brain and gives me the warm fuzzies. I know they're just pretty colors on a screen... but it's a cute little couple seconds of pretty colored pixels that I earned. It's nice.

I don't tell myself I can't ever drink again, and I still have had a few drinks. Though I don't drink for the same reasons, and not to excess. What I've consumed since the end of February is less than what I used to drink in a single day. This has been more than sustainable and it helps me feel more in control. It's what works for me... and I'm really glad I've found something sustainable.

But, man... That digital confetti... it's just so nice to see.

We call this her Blessing Pose 😂

She falls asleep fastest by touching me in some way and this is her preferred way. It always makes me happy to have her holding onto my shoulder like this. Although, if I try to get up to pee or anything, she will dig her nails into my shoulder and refuse to let go 😅.

I love her so much.

… and I found this Jellycat which I loved and it made me smile (which hasn’t really happened in a long time) but I looked at the price tag and said “oh no it’s $75” he said “I’d gladly pay $75 to see that smile on you.” I am so happy and thankful to have someone in my life that cares about me so much. I never thought it would be possible

My husband and I went on our first international trip! It was really fun taking this lil guy to all the cool sights. Figuring out different ways to take pictures with him really forced us to see everything from a unique perspective. We want to do this for every vacation moving forward!

I was washing up last night and he came into the kitchen very seriously and said he wanted to talk to me about something. he had clearly rehearsed this. he said he knew restaurants were expensive and that he'd been thinking about it and he wanted to take me somewhere nice for my birthday and could i help him figure out how long it would take to save up.

I asked him where he wanted to take me. he said the italian place we went to last christmas because i'd said the pasta was the best i'd ever had and he remembered that.

I told him it was the best idea i'd ever heard and then had to face away from him for a moment because i was crying at the kitchen sink over the dishes and i didn't want to embarrass him. Looking forward to it more than almost anything in recent memory.