As awareness grows, so does the alienation.

 As awareness grows, so does the alienation.

― Atrona Grizel

People ask others about the meanings of philosophical texts they cannot comprehend. And by doing so, they “learn” what these texts mean from someone else. From the view of others. Because modernity, in its quest for speed, convenience, and external validation, has produced individuals who seek answers like consumers shop for goods. Their minds see philosophy as a source of close-ended answers rather than vast and subjective questions. For not only do they fail to grasp that philosophy does not necessarily have to “mean” anything—they also do not even know how to think for themselves.

― Atrona Grizel

Where can I fit my pride? I have a self as vast as the universe, so wide that it does not fit into rooms or buildings. With an essence larger than the world yet trapped inside it, where do I enter, where do I go? I only look ridiculous in the world. Because I am not even in the world. What remains is only my compressed version within it. How can so much be forced into such a body, and how does this body not overflow? Because I have left the body as well. Context cannot touch me anymore; no matter where I am, I am simply… there. Unaffected. I am only an abstract being, endlessly drifting.

― Atrona Grizel

In regimes that control every aspect of an individual’s life, self-discipline—though born of necessity—tends to be strong. In contrast, within systems that leave the individual to their own devices, it vanishes in the name of “freedom,” replaced by indulgence in pleasure, comfort, and entertainment. The average human mind possesses an inherent weakness toward the body it inhabits; the intellect is governed by instinct, not the other way around. This is the defining trait of liberal societies: every emotion exists in excess, yet none carries depth or reflection. However, when a regime arises that—rather than allowing humanity to sink deeper into its own flaws—compels it, even through suffering, to confront and transcend them, then and only then can a society unite under a single vision. Totalitarian regimes have always seemed more compelling to me than democratic ones, not out of admiration for tyranny or cruelty, but because they most fully embody the capacity to forge a superior civilization of their own design. As long as the world remains governed by democracy, it will never achieve true unity; consequently, it will never lift its gaze toward the stars. In other words, humanity will never build an advanced, spacefaring civilization so long as it remains bound and confined by its so-called “libertarian ideology,” which keeps it chained to the Earth.

― Atrona Grizel

I speak to silence, and it answers with a voice older than memory—a song composed of forgotten griefs and unclaimed joys. In those moments, I glimpse a reality too vast for language, a landscape where pain and beauty intertwine in an endless dance.

― Atrona Grizel

Losing touch with physical reality is a door to another reality—or even a gateway to numerous distinct and different realities. In this way, the person transcends the boundaries of a singular, narrow, tiny reality and ascends to other worlds, as if traveling through dimensions.

― Atrona Grizel

Have you ever felt, inside your own body, as if you were sealed within an astronaut suit—untouchable from the outside?

― Atrona Grizel

The ability to be extremely patient—not “tolerant”—toward events and places came to me by realizing that they were only a few grains on a beach of perhaps millions. In other words, that person was merely an insignificant one among billions. Or that place, too, was just an ordinary one among billions. By this I do not point to their smallness but to the fact that they are not, and cannot be, the whole of life. My entire life passed in a single cramped place, surrounded by the same people. In such a place I could not have survived except by mentally prying away the reality of that place and those people from their grip. Inevitably my thinking broadened: if I did not love that place, there were forests, mountains, even outer space, and I could very well have loved them. If I were not loved by those people, there were hermits, monks, even the homeless, and I could very well have been loved by them. Reality, then, was completely relative. I remember the deep reluctance and shame at the start of my adolescence when my consciousness first became complex. The sole reason for that was not fear or insecurity but simply not having grown accustomed to the world—that everything has its variant.

― Atrona Grizel

I go from loving you so much

as my kindred muse,

to resenting you so much

as my worst foe.

From waiting for you all my life,

to dismissing you every time.

From drowning you in flowers,

to burning them all the next minute.

Yet I have never been this fluid with anyone;

you let me be.

Is it possible that even my deepest hate

is a form of awe?

My heart moves from fire to cold,

from cold to fire,

While flames fuel it over and over more,

the sudden frost freezes our love.

But if it were to yield to such harshness,

it would have already faded before.

If opposites did not owe their existence to each other,

they would have already proven futile.

We, as two roses on the same twig,

can never separate.

We held each other in embrace,

and watched stars tirelessly dance.

Even if we are separated by far continents,

the Moon unites us; it is both here and there.

We are in the same universe,

same galaxy,

same planet,

and under the same time.

We exist within all of these,

despite all of those.

We are a result of an infinite chance coming true,

the only alternative within fate.

Your eyes speak to me;

I speak their language.

They gazed into me, they told me.

They shined under the bare moonlight, they taught me.

Loving someone I hate,

pushing away something I desire.

You are my beautiful lie,

my sweet nightmare.

We ignited each other in a cave,

and bled together in strife.

Upon this pool of blood,

didn’t we shine once more?

Even if you hide in corners,

I will watch you with my eye.

Even under unimaginable circumstances,

I will imagine you remembering me.

Maybe that is what’s called the thorns of the rose;

maybe that is where lies the beauty of our essence?

― Atrona Grizel

The fear that arises from what is understood is sharper than the fear of what is not understood.

― Atrona Grizel

What makes life sustainable is, quite simply, sleep. Sleep suspends consciousness for hours, temporarily pausing existence to allow rest and renewal. If one goes to bed feeling bad, that feeling often fades by morning—not necessarily because of resolution, but because of the belief in waking to a new, fresh day. Sleep creates a gap between days, a rupture in continuity, which allows each day to feel distinct from the last. But for a person who has lost their sleep, there is no such gap. Days bleed into each other without separation. Life becomes a single, unbroken stream—unceasing, unrested, unrelenting. Time moves forward without pause, and existence becomes a weight that never lifts.

― Atrona Grizel