After a while you learn
The subtle difference between
Holding a hand and chaining a soul
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
And company doesn't always mean security.

And you begin to learn
That kisses aren't contracts
And presents aren't promises
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes ahead
With the grace of a woman
Not the grief of a child

And you learn
To build all your roads on today
Because tomorrow's ground is
Too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way
Of falling down in mid flight

After a while you learn
That even sunshine burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden
And decorate your own soul
Instead of waiting
For someone to bring you flowers

And you learn
That you really can endure
That you are really strong
And you really do have worth
And you learn and you learn
With every good bye you learn.

- Veronica A. Shoffstall

Life will break you.

Nobody can protect you from that, and living

alone won't either, for solitude will also break you

with its yearnings.

You have to love.

You have to feel.

It's the reason you are here on earth.

You are here to risk your heart.

You are here to be swallowed up.

And when it happens that you are broken, or

betrayed, or left, or hurt,

or death brushes near, let yourself sit by

an apple tree

and listen to the apples falling all around you in

heaps, wasting their sweetness.

Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.

-Louise Erdrich

I stay cool, and dig all jive,
That's the way I stay alive.
My motto,
as I live and learn,
is

Dig and be dug
In return.”

- Langston Hughes

When you’re young, and in good health,
you can imagine living in New York City,
or Nepal, or in a tree beyond the moon,
and who knows who you’ll marry: a millionaire,
a monkey, a sea captain, a clown.
But the best imaginers are the old and wounded,
who swim through ever narrowing choices,
dedicating their hearts to peace, a stray cat,
a bowl of homemade vegetable soup,
or red Mountain Ash berries in the snow.
Imagine this: only one leg and lucky to have it,
a jig-jagged jaunt with a cane along the shore,
leaning on a walker to get from grocery to car,
smoothing down the sidewalk on a magic moving chair,
teaching every child you meet the true story
of this sad, sweet, tragic, Fourth of July world.

- Freya Manfred

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

-Kaylin Haught

Prose

&

Poem

You must let suffering speak if you want to hear the truth.

- Cornel West

Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble.

– Frank Tyger

Grace meets you right where it finds you, in your most self-obsessed, whiny-baby mode. It says silently,

"Get up, baby bear. Come with me."

- Anne Lamott

It is in your self interest to find a way to be very tender. -Jenny Holzer

Weigh the true advantages of forgiveness and resentment to the heart. Then choose.

- Jack Kornfield

I stay cool, and dig all jive, That's the way I stay alive. My motto, as I live and learn, is

Dig and be dug In return.”