Brave Enough To Be Bliss

When we haven’t invested in healing, we stay stuck to our stories of bitterness, resentment, anger and hurt. With healing, we can begin to see how even out of a painful experience some good may come . It doesn’t mean we couldn’t have experienced that good without the pain, but oftentimes we humans wouldn’t go the places where we could find those things without the challenge. Especially in the world today, we want everything to be too easy. But L ife… I s… Hard. And that will never change, so expecting or hoping for easy, only multiplies the hard.

Eminem, Justin Bieber - Even Angels Cry (Music Video) Remix by Jovens Wood (youtube.com)

“If we give up on bitterness, we feel vulnerable again. Love makes you vulnerable. There’s no way you can ever live in a genuine relationship of intimacy without risking being hurt. And so what bitterness does is it hardens our heart and it makes us feel as if we have the power to not be hurt. But what it does, it actually eliminates our ability to experience love. And so you think, oh, bitterness is gonna lock out all the pain. No, what bitterness does, it locks out all the joy.” Erwin McManus I saw the following message on Instagram posted by The Ravenwolf (@theravenwolf) and wanted to share it because she feels a lot like me. I will never stop believing in the power of love to transform lives, but I have learned that owning and truly embracing my worth, communicating my needs and desires, and upholding my boundaries is the only way I can have a healthy relationship. She’d been down some hard roads and there were so many times she didn’t think she could go on. But she always found a way. She was much like anyone else except for one distinct difference- Her heart and soul refused to allow her to stop believing in all the things that had broken her- Even the failed love that had shattered her into countless pieces. Her friends told her that she should step back, that love was a fruitless endeavor, but that’s not who she was. She was a deep soul with a loving heart, and no amount of heartbreak would change who she was or what she wanted. She knew that real love involved great risk and she was prepared to keep pushing forward in her search for love. She was one of the rare creatures that still believed in magic and would love hard whenever there was love to be had. Unconditionally. She knew her worth and while she would never settle, she gave people chances that others wouldn’t. Her journey was one of healing, hope and love. Love for herself, for her people and for the life she led-and also of forgiveness for those who had hurt her. It was the essence of who she was and she would never let pain or disappointment change that. So, as she healed, day by day, she loved even harder. She would never listen to the negativity or the whispers that love wasn’t real. Her heart and soul told her differently. She didn’t have the answers, but she didn’t have to - That’s the beauty of life. Every day is a new chance to uncover joy, meet new people and open your heart. They’d call her foolish, blind and all the other words they call hope. But she was a lover, a dreamer and a believer. And nothing would ever change that. For her, love would always be the answer, Now and for always. |Ravenwolf The Ravenwolf | She’d been down some hard roads and there were so many times she didn’t think she could go on.. But she always found a way. She was much… | Instagram

I was reading through Section IV the day before heading back to Kansas City for Mother’s Day weekend when I realized there was something I wanted to add to Chapter 6. To refresh your memory, I inserted the following

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