Light that reaches you only because something stands in the way. Beauty created by obstruction, not absence. I’ve been thinking about that kind of light lately—the kind that doesn’t arrive freely or fully, the kind that has to pass through branches, through resistance, through layers of things that slow it down. Komorebi is the Japanese…
Category: self love
Ma: Where Meaning Lives
There is a kind of meaning that doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t arrive with answers or explanations. It waits in the pause. In Japanese thought, ma speaks to that space—the silence, the gap, the breath between moments. Not as emptiness. Not as absence. But as presence. A presence we often rush past because it doesn’t…
Dear 2026
We’re stepping into you without a clean slate. We’re bringing unfinished conversations, tired hearts, quiet hopes, and lessons we didn’t ask to learn but learned anyway. Some of us are coming in stronger. Some softer. Some carrying grief so gently it almost looks like calm. Some still learning that healing doesn’t always need an explanation….
The Quiet Joy of Ordinary Days
Not every good day announces itself. Some days don’t arrive with answers or breakthroughs or a feeling that everything finally makes sense. Some days are simple. Quiet. Unremarkable in the ways the world usually measures meaning. “Not every blessing makes noise.” And yet— they still hold something good. There is a kind of joy that…
The Heart’s Pages
I came to the realization that writing is my way of showing my heart’s pages to people who have never learned how to read. There are moments in life when spoken words simply fall short — when even the most sincere intentions cannot bridge the distance between what you feel and what others can understand….
You Don’t Have To…
You Don’t Have to Carry It Forever. Just because someone projected their hurt onto you doesn’t mean you have to carry it the rest of your life. Sometimes pain passes through people like a storm that doesn’t know where to land. It finds the closest heart—often the kindest one—and pours itself there. And before you…
The Weight of What We Do
There are people in this world who can do harmful things and still move through life as if nothing happened — as if words didn’t wound, trust wasn’t broken, or hearts weren’t affected. It happens in families, between parents and children, among siblings, in marriages, friendships, and workplaces. Pain doesn’t always come from strangers; sometimes,…
A Letter To My Younger Self
Dear younger me, You were always the quiet one — the girl who preferred books over parties, cozy corners over loud rooms. You felt safer in your own world, where your thoughts could wander freely and your heart didn’t have to perform. And that’s okay. That was never a flaw. That was your beginning. I…
Memoir of my Heart
There’s a quiet place in my life where I go to make sense of the mess, the beauty, the ache, and the grace of it all. That place is Charina Writes. It began simply—as a space to share thoughts, to process life, to speak gently into the noise. But somewhere along the way, it became…
A Love Focused on Self is Not Love
There’s a kind of love that feels good, sounds right, and even looks admirable from a distance—but when examined closely, it is rooted not in care for others but in the elevation of self. We live in a culture that often confuses love with desire, attention, or validation. “Love yourself first,” we’re told—and while there…
Charina.Writes 