They Tell Me

They tell me to stop letting you melt into
my poetry.
They say I should
stop letting you sit on my skin.
I wish I could.
But I keep running into
my heart and her shaking hands
that hold our polaroids.

Oh, to ignore her.
But I don't.

I sit and I reminisce and
I fall back into the dream of you.

It's hard to climb out because you loved me so well there.
So I climb and I fall, over and over.

Can someone tell me if I've crashed yet?

Risk

We are created to go out on a limb,

to be the limb.

We are the branches and he is the vine.

We were created to take chances on ourselves.  

To put ourselves out there.

To grab fruit off of a branch requires stretching.

Stretching of self.

Stretching of faith. 

Stretching of our hearts.

And our hearts have not been called to the sidelines.

We have not been called to sit beside and watch

the world go by.

Life is not a spectator sport.

Discrediting who you are and trying to shrink yourself 

is not a passport to escape this life with as little casualties as possible.

The goal of life isn’t to jump through hoops and try not to feel.

Being strong doesn’t mean going through life unhurt.

Being strong means going through life with an open heart.

Open hearts demand risk.

Be you and don’t be afraid of

the God given zeal that will ooze out of you.

Don’t apologize for the way your soul sees the world.

Don’t back down from your brokenness.

Be you.

Own it and run with it.

Love fiercely.

Feel deeply.

And create anything your heart has ever dreamed of.

And it might be a little messy and it might get a little

out of control.

But this is a lesson I have to keep re-learning.

Is that life was not penciled in perfect ballpoint lines.

When God made the universe I can guarantee lines were the last thing

he was worried about.

Have you ever watched an artist paint and been amazed that the 

once empty canvas now carries a million stories?

That was God creating the universe,

the heavens,

and you.

He took a paint brush, bottled up his imagination, 

and watched as you began to take form. 

You are his dream. 

You are not random. 

You are not something to be taken lightly. 

He was incredibly passionate and intentional when he created you. 

You have a million stories wrapped up in you

and they're not going to look like any body else’s. 

Write, paint, design create.

Do whatever awakens your soul

and don’t be afraid of it.

Create. 

Because you showcase a face of God only

you could show.

God looks different to every single person and thats

the beauty of it.

We were created in his image and yet

no two people have the same fingerprints.

So…

The moral of my story.

The reason of my rhyme.

Being you is the greatest gift you can give

and the world is waiting for your story.

Heroine

The girl whose heart is too big for her body
wants strength, bravery, and love.
She has everything she wants but doesn't see.
She carries the hearts of millions into a
war zone and never lets go.
She was born heroic.

Paris in the Rain

We sat there looking at each other.
Wondering but not speaking.
Feeling but denying.
His eyes carried so much hurt.
When I asked him who he was
he could not answer me.

There is something so dangerous about
giving the most important parts of yourself
to people who try their very best to shield
you from who they are.

To be truthful, there is nothing in him that I could not handle.

But here I am.
Sitting alone.

Wondering if this is what Paris in the rain feels like.

The city of love, dripping in a
coldness you can't shake.

And a yearning for a warmth from
someone you don't know like you thought
you did.