Reflection: What they could never take from you?

You know what they could literally NEVER take away?

Your effect. 

They can burn books people and technology. But to have people to abuse, our minds must remain. 

They can NEVER take away what you’ve already put into the world. Your conversations with strangers. Your children’s conversations with their friends and their friends and allllllllll of their friends as they get older. 

YOU live there. 

Forever. 

It’s already done. 

Like your ancestors before you. 

Heaven is already on earth when you know where to look. 

You are already immortal. 

The greatest lie and truth ever told were that you’d have to die to get there. 

You’ve been walking in heaven your entire life. 

When you don’t know truth and love..it is certainly hell. 

“If you’re going through hell keep on moving. Face that fire. Walk right through it you might get out ‘fore the devil even knows you’re there.”

Rodney Atkins. Wow. 

“Don’t slow down if you’re scared don’t show it.”

I survived by this man’s words. 

He was the first to offer me not a false promise, but instead a real chance. Real advice. 

And wow he describes hell perfectly,

“Well you know those times when you feel like there’s a sign there on your back
That says I don’t mind if you kick me, seems like everybody has
Things go from bad to worse you think they can’t get worse than that and then they do.”

Maybe there’s some other hell, I can’t say. 

I can say there is one on earth in every single mind, potential for hell at least. 

“You step off the straight and narrow and you don’t know where you are
Used the needle of your compass to sew up your broken heart 
Ask for directions from a genie in a bottle of Jim Beam
And she lies to you.”

He’s mapping hell for us. He’s seen it with his own eyes. I know it’s not my words but he says it so well..

“I’ve been deep down in that darkness
I’ve been down to my last match
Felt a hundred different demons breathin’ fire down my back
And I knew that if I stumbled I’d fall right into the trap
That they were layin’, yeah”

Your actions get you out of hell. He was being literal and metaphorical. And then he leaves us with this beautiful advice on how to proceed:

“But the good news is there’s angels everywhere out on the street
Holdin’ out a hand to pull you back up on your feet
The one’s that you’ve been draggin’ for so long
You’re on your knees you might as well be prayin’”

Angels are here. They’re among us. 

If you need help reach out. 

Lana del Rey said it too. Her voice echoes in my head often. Her haunting voice, after a song (Ride) about the tragedy she’s faced, how she’s watched her dreams be “dashed and divided like a million stars in the sky.” That voice saying “I believe in the kindness of strangers.”

She changed everything for me. 

I didn’t hear Rodney Atkins when he said it. 

He told it to me when I needed “if you’re going through hell keep on moving.”

But Lana caught my attention. 

After everything..

Everything. 

She believed in strangers. 

She must’ve had damn good reasons. 

I trusted her and I’m grateful I did.

If you ever need help never be quiet about it. 

Strangers suck but they’ve saved my ass too. 

Sometimes strangers are demons. 

Sometimes strangers are angels waiting to pull you out of hell,

one new thought at a time.  

Sometimes demons and angels coexist in the same person. Don’t say nobody said to watch out for yourself. 

Strangers have tried to kill me too. 

But please get through hell. 

Cause I wanna live forever in heaven with you. 

I want you to see what I see—