Shine

We are all speaking of the same human experience
We couch it in our art forms and in all we do.
It isn’t happenstance that we are drawn
Where we are or where we live.
It isn’t trauma and triumph
That stamps our carriage
It is the undeniable commonality
That you and they and you and I
Share and know and live
It is why we weep as a nation
It is why we pour out our hearts
To our brothers
For it is in that luminosity
of our aching hearts
that We
Shine.


Photography by Melanie Lutz


Here's the soundtrack for today

Johnny Cash covering Trent Reznor Nine Inch Nail's Hurt....



"I wear this crown of thorns upon my liars chair, full of broken thoughts, I can not repair. Beneath the stains of time, feelings disappear, you are someone else, I'm still right here."

"If I could start again, a million miles away, I would keep myself, I would find a way."

As sung by the legend Johnny Cash at the end of his life these words take on meaning and poignancy unintended by the original author but laying bare a deeply held truth. The self doesn’t change, doesn't shift, we merely find a way to support it’s inherent sense and sensibility.

This song goes out to my dear friend whose daughter died over the weekend. She wasn't supposed to live past three, so we celebrate her life and the adventure of her 23 years. We love you.