Birthday Revelations

None of our lives are perfect. None of us have arrived. What we don't often see in the day to day of cliché conversations and social media shares are the things we miss. The people we miss. The hard days. The broken days. The days where we wonder if any of this life stuff is worth it. The days where our dreams seem infinitely impossible.

But we hold onto the moments. The seconds. The brief breaths that sustain us until the next -- the next second of inspiration, of connection, of hope. We hold on, and we remind ourselves that beauty is often found in the seemingly insignificant snapshots of our lives. In the grit, and the grain, and the grace of it all.

Brave

Choosing to be brave is never a mistake.
But sometimes it will cost you every drop of strength you had left in your being.
And when it does - when it leaves your heart cracked, stripped bare,
And your soul a desert of wasted love and wilted dreams,
You'll tell yourself that you were foolish.
Too idealistic. Too hopeful. Too bold.
You'll tell yourself to be silent next time.
You'll tell yourself it must be you.
But it was never you.
You, my dear one, are the brightest truest thing there ever was.

So write this on the chalkboard of your mind.
Scream it in the chambers of your heart.
Choosing to be brave is never a mistake.
Because in that choice, you honor yourself.
You honor humanity.
You honor life itself.
We were never meant to be vessels of unspoken words,
Of fear, of cowardice,
Of smothered hopes,
And stifled cries.

I know right now you feel trapped in the sadness,
In the fog of unanswered questions,
In the hauntings of self doubt,
But you are not trapped forever.
Because only in complete vulnerability can you ever be free.
And you set yourself free every single time you choose to speak up,
To step out,
To leap,
To love.

To You, With Love

We all have wounds. We’ve all experienced giant, gaping holes in our hearts and lost pieces of ourselves along the way. But what matters is if we can allow ourselves to be vulnerable again to show and share all our sides – to trust that someone out there can accept and care for us in both our beauty and our shame, in our raging light and in the absence of our flame. 

Life is hard. Complicated. Unpredictable. Things don’t always go as we plan. We can get hurt, and we can hurt each other. As humans who are completely flawed in a world filled with brokenness and pain, this is inevitable sometimes. But we have to go on, to move forward, to let go, and let ourselves off the hook sometimes. Because there is still joy to be found. There is still hope. And magic. And light. Always remember that. And remember, accept, and believe that you are enough.

Unexpected Rainstorms

When caught in an unexpected rain storm, how often do we slow down and let the rain wash over us? Even if it drenches us. Ruins our makeup. Reveals our tired, un-shiny selves that aren’t always so put together. The beauty of life is in those quiet, random, seemingly chaotic moments, but too often we run from them – these moments that weren’t part of the plan. Moments that are scary. Moments that make us vulnerable. But we are meant to feel things. To experience things. To approach life with wonder and reckless abandon. So next time it rains and you find yourself running for cover, slow down. Wait. Be still. And remember that the beauty and magic we so often search for in the mundaneness of our routines are often found in those small moments – trickling down into our souls, like raindrops on our cheeks.

You Are Good

This song. On repeat. Every day for the past 3 weeks.
I can’t say what it is exactly about particular songs that move me.
I guess there’s an honesty and rawness in certain lyrics, with certain artists, that I relate to.
I sing songs from the stage every Sunday, but I’m just a girl who struggles and doubts as much as, if not more than, anyone else.
But I think it’s important even in those moments – especially in those moments – to sing songs like this one. To repeat to ourselves, over and over again, that “You are good.” 
That you won’t ever let us down.
To let that be our mantra, our anthem.
Because I don’t think it matters if we’ve got it all together or not.
Or if we question on some days, or weeks, or even years, whether or not we’re going to be let down, whether or not we already feel like we’ve been let down, whether or not “You are good” applies to us.
I think what matters is our willingness to be vulnerable, raw, split wide open.
To be brutally honest.
To say I’m here, and I’m going to sing and dance and lift my hands and cry out from the caverns of my soul, from the chambers of my bruised and beat up heart, 
“You are good. And you are never going to let me down.”
Sometimes we just have to forget everything around us,
Everything that holds us back,
Everything that would tell us that it’s safer to keep our guard up,
That it’s more socially acceptable to keep the mask on.
Sometimes we just have to let go,
If just for a single, solitary moment,
And scream hope.