By Rachel Rogers

 

I was built deep and hungry,

with a heart that wanted to be filled with

so much beauty and emotion

and love.

I thought that was my gift,

my blessing—

being able to contain it all.

To soak up each sunset,

to treasure every precious friend.

But then life began to break away pieces of me.

I was glazed with tears. Emptied

of nearly everything in the process.

For so long,

I was angry.

I mourned.

I gasped for a breath

that would bring understanding. And then

one day I wondered…

What if the shards I’ve lost

have not robbed me of this gift

to carry so much in my heart, but instead

have been purposeful? What if now,

being broken and small,

glistening with tears,

I need less

to fill me up? What if

I overflow all this love

and beauty instead of holding it inside?

What if I refract it all outward,

bigger and more beautifully,

through the prism of my tears?

 

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Rachel Rogers is an easily distracted wordsmith…BUTTERFLY! (No, seriously, one just flew by the window)…who never has time for everything she wants to do. If only she hadn’t chosen to be a writer fifteen years ago, and henceforth spent all that time staring at blank pages and slaughtering her words until the pages bled.

 

She does have an associate’s degree in English and Communications to show for her suffering, though, and she’s had at least one piece published in every basic format: nonfiction, fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Her next goals are to figure out what her goals are and to actually transfer the stories in her head onto paper. (Maybe if she weren’t always plotting squirrel stories, she wouldn’t be so squirrel-brained and forgetful.)

 

When she isn’t writing or studying social media and storytelling for her actual job, Rachel is probably gazing wistfully at her to-read pile, squirreling away an unwarranted number of notebooks and colored pens, or writing for her blog at www.graceandscribbles.wordpress.com.