Be confident. Know that now is only a moment, and that if today is as bad as it gets, understand

that by tomorrow, today will have ended. Be gracious. Accept each extended hand offered,

to pull you back from the somewhere you cannot escape. Be diligent. Scrape the gray sky clean.

Realize every dark cloud is a smoke screen meant to blind us from the truth, and the

truth is whether we see them or not - the sun and moon are still there and always there

is light. Be forthright. Despite your instinct to say "it's alright, I'm okay" - be honest.

Say how you feel without fear or guilt, without remorse or complexity. Be lucid in your explanation,

be sterling in your oppose. If you think for one second no one knows what you've been going

through; be accepting of the fact that you are wrong, that the long drawn and heavy breaths

of despair have at times been felt by everyone - that pain is part of the human condition

and that alone makes you a legion. We hungry underdogs, we risers with dawn, we dissmisser's

of odds, we blesser's of on -- we will station ourselves to the calm. We will hold ourselves

to the steady, be ready player one. Life is going to come at you armed with hard times

and tough choices, your voice is your weapon, your thoughts ammunition -- there are no free

extra men, be aware that as the instant now passes, it exists now as then. So be a mirror

reflecting yourself back, and remembering the times when you thought all of this was

too hard and you'd never make it through. Remember the times you could have pressed

quit -- but you hit continue. Be forgiving. Living with the burden of anger, is not living.

Giving your focus to wrath will leave your entire self absent of what you need. Love

and hate are beasts and the one that grows is the one you feed. Be persistent. Be the

weed growing through the cracks in the cement, beautiful - because it doesn't know it's not

supposed to grow there. Be resolute. Declare what you accept as true in a way that envisions

the resolve with which you accept it. If you are having a good day, be considerate. A simple

smile could be the first-aid kit that someone has been looking for. If you believe with

absolute honesty that you are doing everything you can - do more. There will be bad days,

Times when the world weighs on you for so long it leaves you looking for an easy way

out. There will be moments when the drought of joy seems unending. Instances spent pretending

that everything is alright when it clearly is not, check your blind spot. See that love

is still there, be patient. Every nightmare has a beginning, but every bad day has an

end. Ignore what others have called you. I am calling you friend. Make us comprehend

the urgency of your crisis. Silence left to its own devices, breed's silence. So speak

and be heard. One word after the next, express yourself and put your life in the context

-- if you find that no one is listening, be loud. Make noise. Stand in poise and be open.

Hope in these situations is not enough and you will need someone to lean on. In the unlikely

event that you have no one, look again. Everyone is blessed with the ability to listen. The

deaf will hear you with their eyes. The blind will see you with their hands. Let your heart

fill their news-stands, Let them read all about it. Admit to the bad days, the impossible

nights. Listen to the insights of those who have been there, but come back. They will

tell you; you can stack misery, you can pack disappear you can even wear your sorrow -- but

come tomorrow you must change your clothes. Everyone knows pain. We are not meant to carry

it forever. We were never meant to hold it so closely, so be certain in the belief that

what pain belongs to now will belong soon to then. That when someone asks you how was

your day, realize that for some of us -- it's the only way we know how to say, be calm.

Loosen your grip, opening each palm, slowly now -- let go.