38 Comments
User's avatar
Silest Coley's avatar

Hi Justin,

I am a fan of your acting (and now your writing!!)

I love this. I am also unsure about creating roots due to the lack of stability in my surroundings. We as people love a consistent routine- it keeps the brain comfy. But I've started to challenge myself by being uncomfortable. I am a criminal in the sense of lingering in my past self as escapism for the present.

May you grow as you need to move around in this tempestuous world!

Expand full comment
Naomi Min's avatar

I need to know what are you doing because i feel like this in this moment so..😩 help me and happy birtday

Expand full comment
florence's avatar

olives??? really?? perhaps i haven’t quite reached the emotional maturity to appreciate them yet (or rather, numbness to the bitter taste?) hah

happy birthday!! 🫒🫒

Expand full comment
memie's avatar

happy birthday justin :) you're amazing

Expand full comment
tinno's avatar

Happy Birthday, Justin! I'm tinno 🙏

I’m really sad we couldn’t share more of those special moments together last year.

Wishing you a beautiful year ahead—and I truly hope we’ll get to see each other again someday. :-)

Expand full comment
mariella's avatar

i was supposed to comment this days ago but i just remembered it now. i was a teacher for a while and i got really really attached to my students. my father always told me not to get attached because i wouldn't be a teacher forever. and i told him that i would love and care for my kids as long as i was there. so i did. now i'm not their teacher, but i'll always remember them and they'll always remember me. that being said, this writing of yours in particular hit me in my feelings. 🥹🫶🏻

Expand full comment
Saoirse's avatar

Hi Justin, I used to follow your little notes in Instagram and I'm glad you have your own safe space for writing now. Keep shining! 🌟

Expand full comment
erin blaire's avatar

I’ve been thinking about this issue for the last 10 years of my life. I’ve had ongoing existential angst regarding the fact that everything is so impermanent, that things can change any moment, and there is no guarantee that what we love and value will continue to be present in our lives. I think sometimes this dread lead me to a nihilistic fear. if not wanting to start anything because I’m too afraid of it becoming meaningless one day.

i think detachment is actually a virtuous attitude to have in these situations. but it’s more a type of clarity of vision through an understanding of parts in relation to a whole, of finite in relation to the infinite, of time in relation to timelessness (eternity). This is different from the self-preservation type of detachment, one in which we walk ourselves up, unable to love fully and show up to life fully.

I think the stoic detachment I’m speaking of allows us to love and value people and things without clinging to them as if they are our “possessions.” Besides, a type of possessiveness does contradict the very spirit of Love. We’d want to delight in, affirm, and attend to what is in front of us, and love is this type of nurturing affirmation. I think if we recognize that every experience of love participates in a larger tapestry of eternal, finite Love (as countless manifestations in our time), we can more readily let those experiences flow to partake in something larger than ourselves.

So I’m now less afraid of change in my relationships, change in the things I love doing, changes in the places I love going to for coffee, meeting places with friends, etc. I see that change is embedded in constancy, like the fluctuation of the waves still belongs to the ocean. and the ocean that doesn’t go anywhere reminds us that there is something constant in our lives. perhaps. our ability to love and to be loved. to see all changes guided by that constancy is to affirm all of life. Or so I hope.

Expand full comment
Ayu's avatar

Hmmm… This really spoke to me.. not just the idea of holding back, but how much change quietly shapes us without us realizing. Sometimes it’s not even fear that holds me back anymore, just this quiet knowing that everything shifts eventually. People move on, places close down, routines fade. But somehow, we adjust. We find new corners to settle into. We change too.. sometimes without noticing, like suddenly liking olives one day.🫒

#imanolivegirltoo

Expand full comment
meand6am's avatar

Is it even possible to go against the time? There's a German word I like and hate at the same time, "ein Sohn seiner Zeit." Happy birthday Justin anyway hope you're having a good day

Expand full comment
Sawyer's avatar

change being ever present, and making the moments we cling to oh so fleetings makes them the special marvel they are. that moment may never come again, but the memory and emotion of that moment will hold fast

Happy Birthday!!

Expand full comment
CT Liotta's avatar

Olives are delicious.

Expand full comment
kenzieservera's avatar

i’ve moved house once in my life and even thats far too much for me, kudos to you for moving 42 times! that’s absolutely crazy to me.

Expand full comment
Annie's avatar

"to accept that while change is inevitable, it doesn’t make the present moment any less worth investing in, savoring in, loving in." This sentece resonated with me so much omg.

I had a breakdown last nigth because I was feeling this exact same way. It's hard to accept that things aren't gonna stay still and be the same forever but you are right, the fear of things changing shouln't take away from our present.

Thank you so much for shearing this with us, sending you love and a happy belated birthday <3

Expand full comment
María Caldera's avatar

happy birthday justin, i hope you had a great birthday 🫶🏻

Expand full comment
Abbey Sy's avatar

happy birthday fellow tumblr user! cheers to change and all the uncertainties that lie ahead :)

Expand full comment