# Hope To Live <p>I want to live— not merely breathe, but drink deep of the morning light, feel the earth's pulse beneath my feet. I want to live— taste salt on my lips from the sea, hear the strange music of rain hammering against old windows. I want to live— to hold someone's hand in the dark, to laugh until my ribs ache, to weep when beauty breaks me open.</p> <p>I want to live— not waiting for some perfect day that never comes, but here, in this flawed, aching now. To notice the spider's web jeweled with morning dew, to speak the words I've held too long, to forgive, to be forgiven.</p> <p>I want to live— before the silence takes me, before the light goes out. I want to have lived, truly lived, so when the end comes, I can say: yes, I was here. I mattered. I loved. I lived.</p>