I’m not going to lie: the past five months have been tough. I haven’t been depressed, exactly, and I’ve had many moments of joy – or just normalcy, which is almost as good. But those feelings are always – always – in a fight with the anxiety, sadness, rage and impotence that have taken up residence in my body and mind.

Impotence, especially: the feeling that whatever I do, it’s not enough.

I have no idea what motivated some unknown person to paint affirming statements on walls up and down Brooklyn’s Third and Fourth Avenues (it was probably not the carnage and desperation in Gaza), but seeing them always gives me a small boost.

If you need a boost, too, take a look:

But even this relentlessly upbeat stranger suffers from self-doubt sometimes, or so it would appear from this:

To which I say:

You are an amazing person.

I believe in you.

Never give up.