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armored and unmoored.

everyone gets hurt when they’re little. and we each learn to fashion our own armor the best way we know how. this is armor no one can take away from us.

for some it is the armor of invisibility. for others it is the armor that dazzles and shines. but we each will be given as much time as we need to feel the weight of that armor. to carry it on our backs. to forget our own faces because we’ve become used to seeing a battle mask in the glass.

only the warrior can decide when she’s ready for peace. only the soldier can decide when he tires of war. and this is the journey. we can learn to stop apologizing for who we are, defending who we are, hiding who we are, and performing who we are when we surrender the armor in exchange for the freedom to be who we are. to experience who we are.

and if we are lucky, we get to have both: years behind the armor (imagining the battle outside) and a present unmasked, with the sun, wind and rain directly on our skin and the sudden realization that it is always only right now, this choice, this opportunity to choose the light. the armor comes off when we are ready, and not a minute sooner.