Whatever relationships you have attracted in your life at this moment, are precisely the ones you need in your life at this moment. There is a hidden meaning behind all events, and this hidden meaning is serving your own evolution. -Deepak Chopra 

Charlie Howard’s Descent

BY MARK DOTY

Between the bridge and the river

he falls through

a huge portion of night;

it is not as if falling

is something new. Over and over

he slipped into the gulf

between what he knew and how

he was known. What others wanted

opened like an abyss: the laughing

stock-clerks at the grocery, women

at the luncheonette amused by his gestures.

What could he do, live

with one hand tied

behind his back? So he began to fall

into the star-faced section

of night between the trestle

and the water because he could not meet

a little town’s demands,

and his earrings shone and his wrists

were as limp as they were.

I imagine he took the insults in

and made of them a place to live;

we learn to use the names

because they are there,

familiar furniture: faggot

was the bed he slept in, hard

and white, but simple somehow,

queer something sharp

but finally useful, a tool,

all the jokes a chair,

stiff-backed to keep the spine straight,

a table, a lamp. And because

he’s fallen for twenty-three years,

despite whatever awkwardness

his flailing arms and legs assume

he is beautiful

and like any good diver

has only an edge of fear

he transforms into grace.

Or else he is not afraid,

and in this way climbs back

up the ladder of his fall,

out of the river into the arms

of the three teenage boys

who hurled him from the edge—

really boys now, afraid,

their fathers’ cars shivering behind them,

headlights on—and tells them

it’s all right, that he knows

they didn’t believe him

when he said he couldn’t swim,

and blesses his killers

in the way that only the dead

can afford to forgive.

MISTY COPELAND RECREATES ICONIC EDGAR DEGAS ARTWORK 

"Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."
                             -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

i’ve been praying,
and these are what my prayers look like;
dear god
i come from two countries
one is thirsty
the other is on fire
both need water.

later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?

it answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.

-Warsan Shire, from What they did yesterday afternoon

Vulnerability is not weakness. In fact, Vulnerability is the the core, the heart, the center of meaningful human experiences. Without vulnerability, there can be no love, there can be no achievement, there can be no greatness. Unfortunately, instead of developing skills of vulnerability, we too frequently develop armoring techniques. We spend all our energy avoiding getting hurt, avoiding shame. But there’s no surer way to not feel loved, not feel connected, not be fulfilled, than to practice the avoidance of vulnerability.

                                                        -Daring Greatly by Brene Brown