For centuries sailors have heard voices in the crashing of waves and the rumble of deep ocean swells. They claim the voices belonged to the ghosts of those lost at sea, reaching out to their loved ones and trying to find their way home, or to sirens, whose haunting songs beckon mariners to a watery grave. Niall had lived a lifetime on the sea and knew this to be nothing more than nonsense and superstition. After all, ghosts can’t speak, and there’s no such thing as sirens. And if you hear the voices in the waves (may God have mercy upon you) you can know they come from something far more dangerous and dreadful than monsters or men.

We all walk this Earth, but have you ever walked alongside another, and treated them neither friend nor foe but human? Have you ever embraced their mistakes, told them they are not their past and that the future holds so much more than they think? Have you stopped to listen, not with your ears but with your heart and soul, and let them feel accepted? Have you opened your mind to their world, instead of being engrossed in your own?

Humans have the capacity to love. Have you shown love for others when they are at their lowest? Have you shown love when you thought you simply just couldn’t? Have you loved yourself when you thought you were undeserving of it? To love is a gift that we can give not just others but also ourselves.

When I was young I didn’t like to share. I’d always had to share with my sibling. Every packet of oreos, every drink and every toy. I grew up wishing I had everything for myself. But one day someone came along, and he made me want to share. When I saw that look of bliss on his face, I realised that I wanted to share it with him, everything that was good to him. I wanted to feel his bliss, to share my bliss with him and make him happy too. I realised being selfish doesn’t make me feel as good as when I shared.

And so I shared. And I didn’t just share the good, I shared the bad too. If he were to support me now and in the future, as my partner, he had to know about my life. And my life had both good and bad and the in between. He had to know everything, and he welcomed that with open arms. He cradled my sadness, nutured it into strength, and returned it back to me. He saw from different perspectives, and turned me around so I could see them too. He accepted the human side of me, the side of me that wasn’t so lovable, and yet accepted the love from him too.

There were times I felt unloved. There will be times when you feel unloved. And in that moment, learn to love yourself, for the strength within you is more robust than any other external love that you can acquire. Self-validation is better than validation from anyone else.

Of course we’d still like to receive love and care elsewhere. It gets tiring on your own doesn’t it? On your own, on your own, on your own. It gets repetitive. Finding someone who understands is something we all hope for. But that will come in its own time. So give it some space, let nature take its own course. You will find magic and wonder in little things you didn’t even know possible.

In the meantime, keep doing what you want to. Keep doing what you love doing. Keep improving yourself. Keep learning. Keep loving. Keep embracing. Keep accepting. Keep making mistakes. Keep crying. Keep smiling. Keep moving. But most of all, keep being human.

There's not one thing that has ever been taken for granted by everyone at the same time. Oxygen? There's someone appreciating the air right at this moment. Nitrogen? Someone has just learned about it at school. Nails? Blood? Pupils? Everything is being appreciated at this moment in time by someone somewhere.

You?

You can argue that you have never been appreciated at any moment. I beg to differ. Someone might've looked at you at the streets and had a sudden realization that changed their lives for the better; a little kid might've looked at you and right away wanted to be like you when they grow up; You might've been in a rush and bumped on someone on their way to work and because of that they weren't hit by a bike that was passing by a few moments later. There's always something to appreciate at life and there's always something being appreciated.

We live in a planet that's inside a solar system that's inside a universe full of everything. And sometimes, that's exactly how we feel. Full of everything. When that feeling kicks in and everything seems a little hopeless, remind yourself that the world is full of everything as well. A little bit of appreciation might help.