Two nights ago, I lost my leg in a dream.

There was an explosion.

I remember shrapnel.

I remember a lot of metal.

I couldn’t stop bleeding.

I was lying on the ground, with my knees up to my chin (rather, one of my knees up to my chin), holding my legs (what was left of them, at least).

I didn’t cry.

I was in pain but didn’t show on my face that I was in pain.

I looked up at the sky.

I saw myself with only one leg

and I thought about how grateful

I should be that…

Dear You,

I sometimes wish that your friends would message you to ask how you are currently doing.

Just a short text would do.

When I remember people in my past, I may look them up on social media and message them to see if we could be connected and, sometimes, we stay in touch regularly and, sometimes, we don’t start any connection.

We just need to try.

Have you tried messaging old friends? Have you taken just a minute to text a friend?

If the text goes unanswered, then it doesn’t matter.

I always figure that when we try…

I love Reddit and I stumbled upon the following which made me think really hard this morning.

I am very sad because Willie James Howard would have lived to 92 if he weren’t murdered for revealing in a letter that he was fond of a white girl. He was simply a young man who was brave enough to tell a white girl that he liked her and got killed for it.

When I think of my grandmother, I think of how this teenager could also still be alive today.

A potential life gone for nothing.

It makes me think about…

I wandered around Lima, Peru when I came upon two ladies selling arepas on the street.

I had always wanted to try an arepa (it’s like a Venezuelan version of a dumpling, maybe).

I went to their cart and bought one.

The two ladies smiled wide.

Millions of people stand by their food carts every day on the streets to sell to customers for hours.

I don’t know how those two ladies could still somehow be happy in their impoverished situation (it’s obvious that anyone better off wouldn’t choose to sell food on the street. …

I have a photo of my family in my mind:

I tell my sister, “I don’t want your 5AM walk to die.”

I tell my mother, “I don’t want your Sunday dumplings to die.”

I tell my favorite cousin, “I don’t want your mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and after-dinner snacks to die.”

I tell my best friend from 2nd grade, “I don’t want your Saturday morning Skype chat conversations to die.”

I tell my father, “I don’t want your habit of buying your daily paper to die.”

I tell my step-brother, “ don’t want your eagerness to play PC games everyday to…

I’m unhappy.

I’m unhappy.

I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.
I’m unhappy.

During this pandemic, I am very aware of the millions of evictions that are taking place, the millions who are in really dark places becoming darker and darker, the hundreds of thousands who have lost loved ones, the millions who are so anxious that they remain sleepless throughout the night, and the millions who see no path leading to anywhere in their lives from…