“I am slowly finding my way back into my skin. Or maybe that’s not it. I am growing into a new skin with knowledge and time.”

Less I. more We. For the good of the community.

Knowing you’ve got my back is everything. When we were sleeping till noon and binge watching scrubs. I never could understand the complexity of the future.

I look around and see all the beauty that is possible – all the beauty we can make. Together.

When all the noise is gone, there is so much to hear, to see, to appreciate. Detoxifying from a past that does not fit now.

Vegans don’t walk on egg shells.

Somehow in all this grief I found joy. Sharing art with you has made me whole again. And again.

When we share art we extend a hand. We hold a mirror. We adjust our focus. We hold each other. We weave a collaborative story. Together.

Every day we keep telling the same stories. Over and over. We forget that our endings can be different. So can the plot. I think it’s time for some surprise endings.

It might be time. To do that thing. In fact it has been time for a while.

In this culture of winners and losers. Your trauma is your trauma. This is not a measuring contest of pain.

Tell me to calm down. Go ahead. Tell me I’m crazy. Tell me how it actually works. Try to make me feel small and insignificant. But I see you. For the insecure, power clutching man you are. Good luck. You need it.

A year ago everything started to change. I didn’t think I could come out on the other side. The view is fine. I’m fine. Better now.

Without authenticity you are nothing.

It’s possible to be all the parts of you that live in your heart, brain, and body. Not divided into containers. A giant messy wait of authenticity. Where you are all the things. All the time.

When you come calling I’ll answer. But I know I have to keep a piece of my heart just for me.

You are the only one I can truly count on.

Hope knows that if great trials are avoided great deeds remain undone and the possibility of growth into greatness of soul is aborted.

If we don’t empower women, we don’t allow them to unlock the potential of themselves and their children.

Make generosity part of your growth strategy.

You have to accept that sometimes that’s how things happen in this world. People’s opinions, their feelings, they go one way, then the other. It just so happens you grew up at a certain point in this process.

Our Lord is the ground from whom our prayer grows and in his love and grace he himself gives us our prayers.

The willow is my favorite tree. I grew up near one. It’s the most flexible tree in nature and nothing can break it – no wind, no elements, it can bend and withstand anything.

I think what you notice most when you haven’t been home in a while is how much the trees have grown around your memories.

I didn’t grow up wealthy. We couldn’t even afford spaghetti sauce when I was first born, but my mom and dad worked really hard and came from the bottom up.