" Tell me about your boss.
Tell me about the job
you've been trying to quit for the past four years.
Tell me the morning is
just a townhouse burning to the ground
and the snooze button is a fire extinguisher.

Tell me the alarm clock
stole the keys to your smile,
drove it into the 7 AM
and the crash totaled your happiness.
Tell me.
Tell me how blessed are we to have tragedy
so small it can fit on the tips of our tongues.

When Evan lost his legs he was speechless.
When my cousin was assaulted
she didn't speak for 48 hours.
When my uncle was murdered
we had to send out a search party
to find my father's voice.

Most people have no idea
that tragedy and silence
often have the same address.

When your day is a museum of disappointments,
hanging from events that were outside of your control,
when you feel like your guardian
angel put in his two weeks notice two months ago
and just decided not to tell you,
when it seems like God
is just a babysistter that's always on the phone,
when you get punched in the esophagus
by a fistful of life.

Remember,
every year
two million people die of dehydration.
So it doesn't matter if
the glass is half full or half empty.
There's water in the cup.
Drink it and stop complaining.

Muscle is created by lifting things
that are designed to weigh us down.
When your shoulders are heavy
stand up straight and call it exercise.
Life is a gym membership
with a really complicated cancellation policy.

Remember,
you will survive,
things could be worse,
and we are never given
anything we can't handle.
When the whole world crumbles
you have to build a new one
out of all the pieces that are still here.

Remember,
you are still here.

The human heart beats
approximately 4,000 times per hour
and each pulse,
each throub,
each palpitation is a trophy,
engraved with the words
"You are still alive.
You are still alive.
So act like it. "

― Rudy Francisco