There's something about sharing a story. Being in the company of one of the greatest families I've ever known was refreshing and beautiful. We're not blood related. We don't look alike. We don't share DNA. Yet we're family, in our weird way. Our stories are all different, yet the song is the same. We've known redemption. There's a love that made a way for us.
A friend and I were talking tonight, and it was weird how similar bits of my past and her present were. Tonight, I am thankful for each story, and each person behind it. Our lives interconnect, every road, every experience, serving a purpose all its own. I can't believe the absolute light that comes with sharing what's in our past with others who are confronted with it in their present. I'm thankful for the fact that we can sit face to face with another human being and words can come up from the heart of who we are. I've been there too, and there's a way out. I know what it feels like to be where you are, and it gets better. We are rooting for you, cheering for you, and believing the best in you. We're for you. We'll run alongside you when you're strong and hold you up when you're weak, because that is just what love does.
I'm thankful for the people who have taken the time and grace to tell me things like this, and I'm privileged to pass it on to others. There's a breathtaking beauty that comes when we link arms with each other and stand together, through hardship and lightness, joy and pain, tragedy and blessing. We're in this together.
Your victory is my victory.
Your sadness is my sadness.
Your joy is my joy.
It is truly an honor to walk alongside you, whatever the path may bring.
Thursday, November 25
Sunday, November 7
l
–noun
1. Chemistry- a substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected.
2. Something that causes activity between two or more persons or forces without itself being affected.
3. A person or thing that precipitates an event or change.
4. A person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic.
"Outside the fences of convention lies an untamed wilderness awaiting the reckless souls who have the nerve to cut their own path. Are you daring enough to defy the dictatorship of the critics? Are you strong enough to wander outside the lines? To dance to your own drum? To thrill to the ecstasy of unrepentant, unabashed euphoria?
Dare enough to raise your head above the crowd." -Jon Foreman
Read more of his column for The Huffington Post.
Wednesday, November 3
You matter.
A man on my campus took his life last week. My brain can't decide if I should call him a boy or a man, because he was too old to be one and too young to be the other. He didn't even have enough time to decide. I didn't know him. I wasn't friends with him, but my heart is broken. He was a person. We, we are just people. None of us are perfect. And none of us, for any reason, should be made to feel like we don't matter.
Because we do matter.
You matter.
You're precious and valuable. You get one life. One, and only one.
And you are not replaceable.
be. known.
That's it. Don't go through today without telling someone how you really are. Not a cute anecdote about your day, or laundry list of how busy you are. Tell someone about you. Invite them into your head, into your mess. Let someone walk next to you- in the dirt, in the sun, through all the crap and all the goodness. It's these moments and this transparency with one another that makes community come alive. We each have a story- things in our lives that we've experienced, places we've come from and things that have happened. We've all walked a million miles in lives have been given to us, down roads no one else knows. The truth is that your story is unique and important. So start by letting someone in on it, even if it feels like you don't have everything together. Don't worry. I don't have everything together either. Maybe the idea is that none of that matters. The idea is that maybe we're more loved then we'll ever really know.
Because we do matter.
You matter.
You're precious and valuable. You get one life. One, and only one.
And you are not replaceable.
be. known.
That's it. Don't go through today without telling someone how you really are. Not a cute anecdote about your day, or laundry list of how busy you are. Tell someone about you. Invite them into your head, into your mess. Let someone walk next to you- in the dirt, in the sun, through all the crap and all the goodness. It's these moments and this transparency with one another that makes community come alive. We each have a story- things in our lives that we've experienced, places we've come from and things that have happened. We've all walked a million miles in lives have been given to us, down roads no one else knows. The truth is that your story is unique and important. So start by letting someone in on it, even if it feels like you don't have everything together. Don't worry. I don't have everything together either. Maybe the idea is that none of that matters. The idea is that maybe we're more loved then we'll ever really know.
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