A price that comes with engagement.

I have always believed that you can change the rules if you don’t play the game. What this means in essence- is - you can’t affect what is going on around you if you disappear and refuse to engage.  You probably won’t find the love of your life if you go from work to the TV and back again.  You probably won’t find that next play partner if you don’t go to community events, engage in online discourse, and expand your pocket of friends.

I believe this with all that I have. 

Here is the thing with that.

There is a cost.

A price that comes with engagement. 

Sometimes that cost comes big and all at once - like a relentless tornado of dark that surrounds the all of you. 

Sometimes it is slow.  It chips away at you, bit by bit.  Until one day you look up, and there is nothing of you left.  And you think, I used to remember a part of me there. Was there really a part of me there once? 

If you are lucky, the tornado slows and lets you see through its eye to the other side.

If you are lucky, you can find the bits of yourself and stick them back on, trying them for size, seeing if you are really you, or if you have changed into something else.  Something unexpected.

So that is where I am.  I am chipped and raw. I have nothing left to give. I am taking parts of myself and putting them down.  Maybe for a short time, maybe permanently.  

Like a shedding almost.  

So I am going to say to you what I truly want for you to have from what is left of me: 

Keep your eyes on the goal. 

You can do this.

This community needs you.

Believe the best in people until they prove you otherwise.

It doesn’t matter if you have a million dollars or none- what you have to offer MATTERS.

Remember you were new once.

And most of all.

Lead with an open  heart.  OR not at all.