It is not always enough to believe--you must live it every day.

You must find your home in its embrace; however strange it may seem to others, however difficult it may be, you must turn away from other outstretched arms, seductive folds that would gather you into the temporary ease of all-inclusiveness.  Yes, this collective energy can momentarily assuage the wear and tear of walking your own path but ultimately stifles you with the price you must pay for this comfort: silence.  Only your voice, that seed of sound and breath, the song of who you are, the breeze that allows your wings to unfurl.

But you cannot turn your back on your creed.  The one made up of lessons learned the hard way and a future paved by dreams and flashes of inspiration and--sometimes--past lives, those tatters of ghostly tendrils that snake their way through the cracks in the earth beneath your feet.  It is yours and yours alone.

If you know each seed you plant will blossom, you must sow wisely.  If you know each thought is a thread coloring the tapestry of your life, you must think carefully.  If you know that your lungs need fresh air and open space to fill them up, you must find a land without fences in which to breathe deeply.  If you know that only you can create your future, you must wake every morning to pave the next row of stones that carve out your path.  If you know your life is made up of conversations with the universe, you must speak with the cosmos often, shout out to it, sing to it, and listen to its response even if no one else can understand or hear the exchange.  They see only dust, where you see stars.