4d • General discussion
Surviving vs Thriving
I don’t know how to thrive.
I know how to survive.
I know how to wake up tired
and still get out of bed.
How to swallow doubt with coffee
and call it discipline.
I know how to keep moving
when standing still feels dangerous.
How to keep my hands busy
so my mind doesn’t wander
to places it knows too well.
Most days I feel like an impostor—
like someone is going to tap my shoulder
and tell me I’ve stayed too long,
that I don’t belong in the rooms
I worked so hard to enter.
I show up anyway.
I show up for my kids
even when fear rides shotgun.
I show up for my wife
even when I don’t recognize
the man in the mirror.
I’ve learned how to carry weight
without letting it show,
how to look steady
while everything inside me
is bracing for impact.
People talk about thriving
like it’s a destination—
like one day you just arrive
and everything finally clicks.
But I live in the in-between.
The gray space.
The season where you’re not drowning,
but you’re not breathing easy either.
I don’t chase happiness.
I chase stability.
I chase enough strength
to make it through today
without borrowing trouble from tomorrow.
Maybe thriving comes later.
Maybe it doesn’t.
For now, surviving means staying.
It means choosing not to disappear.
It means loving the people in front of me
even when I’m not sure
how to love myself yet.
And if that’s all I can do today—
then today,
that’s enough.
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Surviving vs Thriving
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Poetry on fatherhood, grief, faith, and the times we’re living in. Come read, reflect, and feel less alone.
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