My eie foto, lank gelede by Lekgalameetse…min het ek geweet die paaie wat ek sou loop.

Ek sit en wonder vanmiddag oor die paaie, die ervarings, die strewe an outentiek lewe, oop lewe in jou gebrokenheid; en immer soos altyd asof daar met my gepraat word, lees ek die mooi woordesnoer van Liezel Graham raak.

ON BEING THE HOLY BROKEN
you wonder 
if it is worth 
living your life 
cracked 
wide 
open, whether

wearing your heart 
on your sleeve
and
all your 
hopes 
carried in 
unclenched 
hands, 
is ever safe, where

all the world can 
see, and 
all the world can
say 
what they feel 
about the tender courage 
that has 
taken 
root 
within you.

it will not be easy. 
no.
definitely not.
there will be pain.
it is a new birth,
after all.

but, you must not 
curl 
inward.

lift your head. 
unfurl your spirit. 
reach upward. 
live outward.

you are the holy broken.

the one holding the light.

and if you show your scars, people will come 
and sit with you, 
and they will listen.

and this 
is how we heal each other.
by living gently, 
and walking vulnerably. 
unafraid of opinion. 
ready to wipe away 
tears
and
fears
and
other darkness,
with the light
shining 
from 
the cracks
in our bones.
moved only by the spirit.

so, yes—do it. 
live your life 
a white dove 
on the battlefield.

cracked 
right 
open.

it will all be ok.

—on being the holy broken.

© Liezel Graham 2018.