120: because the good shit doesn’t drain you

So build yourself as beautiful as you want your world to be. Wrap yourself in light then give yourself away with your heart, your brush, your march, your art, your poetry, your play. And for every day you paint the war, take a week and paint the beauty, the color, the shape of the landscape you’re marching towards. 

Everyone knows what you’re against; show them what you’re for.

Andrea Gibson, Evolution

As a woman, I’ve heard

keep a little mystery
don’t wear your heart on your sleeve
guard your heart
be careful

I’ve often felt shushed, felt stifled, felt like pouring into others was supposed to be a draining, exhausting battle impossible to win.

And maybe at its core, this is all sage advice. After all, how bad could it be to protect myself from bad things, to just, well, protect myself?

So often guard your heart is translated as close it off. And that notion I wildly reject.

I think we’re worried if we give too much of ourselves away, there won’t be anything left (for me).

But that’s only a risk if you don’t have anything of substance to give.
If you pursue beauty, love, compassion, kindness, art, truth, you’re never going to run out of things to give, you’re never going to become empty.

The worthwhile pursuits mentioned above only duplicate themselves when they’re obtained, when they’re shared, when they’re realized. When you give out good things, you lose nothing; you can only and ever gain something.

The real danger lies not in what we give away,
but what we have to give away from the beginning.