Here’s to the souls forced to live under cover of darkness, filled with desires they cannot express, overflowing with needs daylight cannot soothe. Here’s to the 3-piece suitors, lunch hours on their knees, heeling to Madame X, travelling hidden and unspoken roads within themselves. Here’s to lives lived in shadows, in defiance of no life lived at all. Here’s to the good, obedient ones, who shred rules to pieces, who launch fireballs of abandon when no one is looking. Here’s to the embers that singe their ground, reminders of who they are, when unjudged and free. Here’s to the addicts, who show up day-in, day-out, to a world with its noise set too high and too low, the only respite a drug of choice that feels like no choice. Here’s to their winning the struggle to remain alive, breathing another day, another chance. Here’s to those who have been unimaginably hurt, who have crawled on, as tornadoes rampage through their core. The ones who still ponder healing, safety and peace, if only for a moment a day. Here’s to their decision to cope how they can, to continue as they can, to stay with us for as long as they can. Here’s to the unfulfilled and undernourished, the overlooked and misunderstood, still smiling in moments of rare and genuine peace. Here’s to those who have lost, who walk this earth with leaking and irreparable wounds, soft hearts and kindness, no matter what. Here’s to the men and women drinking desperately, from jagged and near-empty cups. I see you. I do.
