Some words some friends should hear
Everyone has their ups and downs.
Life throws curveballs;
some people can catch them,
others have to sit out the next round.
You may fumble the catch, drop the ball,
but your mistakes do not define you.
What defines you is what you do next,
how you stand up after you fall.
It doesn’t matter how long it takes,
if some help is needed along the way.
Transitioning between a wheelchair,
to crutches,
to walking once again,
to dancing,
takes time.
It doesn’t matter how many hands support you.
While they are nice, and sometimes needed,
deep down it is you,
yourself,
Who must find the inner strength
to reach for those hands
and grasp them,
to pull yourself back up off the ground.
It is you,
yourself,
Who must look into the fractured mirror
and not focus on one scarred piece
of your reflection,
But instead step back, and view yourself entirely
to see beauty still remains
Even if some things
are broken.
For even broken things can be loved.
A sweater so used the hems come apart,
with stains that cannot be rinsed away,
is still loved and worn yet again.
Sea glass is sought after by many,
but once it was a bottle,
smashed into a thousand pieces.
Battered and worn by the seas
until time smoothed the rough edges.
Even incomplete things can be loved.
A plant has indeterminate growth,
time will not end a tree.
A young flower is loved as much as an oak.
While their experiences are different,
for one has stood for a year, the other a century,
both are wise in their own way,
and neither are finished in their journey.
Even sad things can be loved.
And angry ones.
The violent, the strong, the weak.
Who else has fallen in love with a storm?
Storms are beautiful, but they are not calm.
The howling of the wind,
banging of the shutters,
the glare and the flash of lightning,
and the boom that follows.
The rain pouring down,
quenching fires that have sparked.
In the cold, rain turns to snow,
transformed but powerful all the same.
Do not let anyone tell you your emotions are insignificant,
that they should be bottled and hidden away.
You are a storm.
Over time, if your feelings are bottled,
the pressure will build until everything bursts.
Unleash yourself now
before you need to be broken
to be whole.
If it is too late,
remember to send your broken pieces to the sea
and let the waters shape you anew
and come out more beautiful than you began.