I came across this awe-inspiring live recording of a poem done by Gabrielle Bouliane. This was her last public performance. She was diagnosed with stage-four cancer shortly before this video was filmed. She ended her fight to cancer on January 29, 2010.

May this poem inspire you, challenge you, and disturb you as it did me. Selah.

When was the last time you told everybody to shut up?

If it’s been a while, then stop reading and go do it now. No, seriously. Go and do it.

Go tell your boss to shut up. Go tell your husband or wife to shut up. Tell your kids to shut up. Tell all the bloggers and social media gurus to shut up. For you college students, when you go to class tomorrow, tell one of your professors to shut up. For all you Christians, tell your pastor to shut up after service this Sunday (I’m sure that rustled some feathers). If this seems too harsh to do, then I give you permission to comment and tell me to shut up. I’m ok with that.

Ok. I’m just kidding. Not really.

Here’s the thing. [...more]

Questions:

Have you ever been in a conversation where someone pointed out something wrong with you more than what was right?

Can you name your strengths? Can you name your weaknesses? Is it easier to identify your weaknesses than your strengths?

Here’s what I know…

Most of us focus on our weaknesses more than our strengths. Even deeper than that, most of us focus on each other’s weaknesses more than strengths. We spend more time talking about them and thinking about them. It seems that from childhood, we are wired to think and live this way. I’ve always felt like that was wrong for some reason. Even as a child, I never seemed to leave a conversation on weaknesses feeling inspired or ready to CRUSH anything. If anything, I’d leave feeling inadequate and always missing some invisible mark. [...more]

I sit here, recalling the moments I shared in the experience of watching *Avatar* the movie; moments filled with emotion, liberation, fulfillment and solace. Moments filled with the idea that where I long to be in my mind looks more like the world of Pandora. A world absent of money, technology, cars, college, The American Dream. A world where man and nature are one. A world that resonates the true authentic power of love. A world of higher thinking and existence. This was where I found myself as I sat in my seat, close to tears, imagining this world. Only to find myself at the end, forced to shrink back into the corrupted fallen state of human existence. Where our conversations are futile and our thinking is jarred with lower-level thoughts. Where we fight and argue over money, power, success, and status. Where we murder, kill, abuse, assault, threaten, belittle, and devalue our world and one another. Where we settle for how much we know, how much we make and how much we achieve as our purpose. Where we behave almost as low as animals; savages, full of hate and anger and jealousy and evil. Where we hurt one another with verbal and physical ignorance. [...more]