TRYING OUTSIDE THE LINES

Only through part one, but already know this is going to be one of my favorites, just like her previous title, “Buy Yourself the Fucking Lilies.”

An excerpt…

“The reason stars glitter is because they have been through so much. Stars are born when clouds of gas and dust are pushed together by the unrelenting force of gravity. All of the motion, the pushing, the prodding, the exertion of forces beyond the gas and dust’s control, heats up the nebula, making the star smaller and smaller and hotter and hotter until the center becomes so blistering that the hydrogen gas in the star goes nuclear. At the moment when the vapor couldn’t feel more squeezed, it becomes a star that has the power to glow for billions of years. It’s the pressure, the process, all of the bullshit the star has endured, that gives it its resiliency. And as we know, the stars don’t just shine for themselves, they shine for all of us here on planet Earth looking up to the sky, in our pulled-over cars, asking what the fuck of life. We are stars. I mean that quite literally. Most of the elements that make up our bodies came from the Big Bang, from the very things that make up stars. I think you’ve probably heard that before and it isn’t a fable, it’s true. Isn’t that just about the most enchanting thing to think about? That you are made of stars? I also mean this figuratively. We arrive here as unique clusters of DNA that only our parents could create, and we have our very own personalities from the jump (if you’ve met any toddler, you know this to be true). Then, our parents, our teachers, our society, our obligations, history, power structures, other people’s expectations, push and push on us, but rather than make us implode or explode or throw our hands up and give up or settle down, I’ve learned that we can be just like stars, taking all of that pressure and turning it into our eternal glow. What does it even mean to glow? you very rightly ask. That word has been pretty diluted by the beauty industry lately. Please allow me to reclaim it. The dictionary definition of “glow” is “to give out a steady light without flame” or to give off a “a steady radiance of light or heat.” Notice how the flame is not a part of glow? Flames burn out. Instead, glow is an inner light that luminates on its own. It’s inextinguishable and can both fuel and sustain you. It’s hard to be a person, really, it is, and the fact that you’re here at all, the fact that you’ve survived everything you’ve been through and you’re with this book now, questioning how to heal your soul, that tells me everything I need to know. You are ready, you are capable, you are worthy, and you are going to do this work wearing the dopest sneakers of all time because that’s just you.”

Tara Schuster (the artist formerly known as T$) makes me uber grateful that God will speak to you wherever you’re willing to hear Him, in this book and the next. Today, we remember we are ready, we are capable, and we are worthy.