In these fragments of August, Parlons de la vie reflects on growth through struggle and gratitude. Through poetry and philosophy, it explores resilience, beauty, and the meaning found in every challenge. August was a month abundantly rich in experiences. It offered me great happiness: my family was almost complete, and I met new people whose place in my life I cannot yet measure, but whose beginnings inspire confidence. In September, I could have shared these fragments in the very first week, but a short story contest required my full attention. I am sharing them with you today, as they came to me, with simplicity and sincerity. I wish you a pleasant reading.

1. So many things happen in life that it feels sweet to count the flowers we’ve received, all those beauties that came to us effortlessly. All those promises fulfilled without us ever asking, all those dreams we never even dared to dream, all those moments that make us say that life must be loved, with all its “despite.” For life also holds sudden sparks, those “wow, I didn’t see that coming.”

2. There is victory the moment we refuse to give up, victory when we try despite everything. So much happens in the process: every step awakens us and every struggle reveals us.

3. Life begins with love, and love begins with the other. The very first other is ourselves, learning to love who we are so we can love better. Then comes the one we must learn to embrace. To live is to learn the patience of loving.

4. Life is made of encounters, improbable, unpredictable, almost impossible, and yet they arise, take shape and affirm themselves.

5. The beauty of life lies in prayer, in those words that make us small before the great, in those wishes entrusted to God or the universe, in those dreams that are born within.

6. Life is made of encounters: some brush past us, others become essential, and some bring us safely back to shore.

7. It is a blessing not to be born an only child, but to have, from the earliest steps of life, beings you can count on.

8. Call it God or the universe, it watches over its children. Sometimes life reminds us how small we are, and what makes us great, even if only for a moment, is knowing that the One who watches has chosen us and kept us alive. We are not puppets of destiny and we are not slaves to our instincts, we are carried by a higher force.

9. Life is unpredictable, and in the unexpected we often find the clearest truths.

10. Nothing can prevent what is meant to happen from happening.

11. When I see all that has been given to me, though I never earned it or demanded it, I can only say: everything is grace.

12. No matter the steps, the passages or the dead ends, life always finds its way. It is both pause and movement, present and renewal.

13. Perception outweighs reality. Many see evil in what is only a misunderstanding, love in what is only attraction, failure in what is only an obstacle. Lucidity is a virtue, and sound judgment an art.

14. Some choices change a destiny forever, and the choice to love is one of them.

15. There are friends who make you think of the divine. In hardship, I have known such proofs of kindness. Their presence turned survival into life. They never wanted gratitude, only love freely given.

16. Patience and perseverance are often the ultimate key. Hope and faith are the strength to love even in dead ends, believing that the world will be well as long as we do not give up, for there is something greater than us that watches over.

17. Friendship is the purest expression of love, free and good.

18. Finding love is not easy. Finding a love that lasts means not leaving your past behind but bringing with you a part that is peaceful and reconciled, while consenting to welcome the past of another. It means choosing to plant together, to harvest together and, above all, to welcome together whatever life places in our hands.

19. Life is more complex than we imagine. We can be happy to live it while being unhappy not to understand it. We can long for love and yet reject the one who loves us. We can want without being able, or be forced to do without wanting. Life is a vast field where we must build, destroy and begin again, again and again, all throughout our existence.

20. Empathy is the mother of love.

21.Our efforts are never in vain.

22. Nothing is worth more than knowing one’s own value. It protects us from the thieves of tomorrow and guides us to what is just.

23. It is others who shape us, just as we shape them. Choosing wisely, praying to walk with the best, is also the path to becoming better ourselves and giving that goodness back in turn.

24. The love that destabilizes is to be feared. The love that feels like a fall too often leads to the grave. To “fall” in love—what a strange way to speak of love.

25. The cruelest are often those we believed to be loving. True love does not wound. Wounded love, built on fractures, can only wound in return.

26. What hurts most is knowing that the wounds come from those who love us. Life is at once beautiful and cruel, healthy and toxic. So many experiences must be lived before we understand that it does not end as long as it endures.

27. There is good in the bad and bad in the good. The essential thing is to remain on the side of the good, to draw wisdom even from trials, knowing that it is not always easy to keep our promises. Life is made of disappointments, but above all of victories over evil.

28. Advice abounds, but the safest way is to remain faithful to one’s heart while staying open to change. Man is perfectible, and so is his life.

29. Life is made of adjustments, and so is love. Compromise is the price of a better life together.

30. A healthy life is a simple life. A simple life strips itself of the superfluous, of false pleasures and impure dreams.

31. Life has enough surprises to keep us humble. I love knowing that I am perfectible, that I am always evolving, that I keep progressing. These tiny progresses are infinitely beautiful.

Written by Aliane UMUTONIWASE