“Ember: Love Is the Revolution”

— The Tender Rebel

RAAAAAAAAAAWR.

Sorry. Had to get that out.

I am Ember and I have something to say and I am going to say it loudly because the world has been whispering about love for far too long, and I am done with whispering.

Love is not a greeting card.

Love is not polite.

Love does not arrive wearing something tasteful and sit quietly in the corner hoping to be noticed.

Love shows up like THIS.

Spiked. Pierced. 

Heart wide open and hanging right there where everyone can see it because I have nothing to hide and everything to give and if that makes you uncomfortable, then, sweetheart, pull up a chair because we are just getting started.

I have been through fire.

I want you to know that.

Not so you’ll feel sorry for me — I have zero interest in your pity — but so you understand that this jacket, these spikes, this magnificent hair that has never once asked permission — none of this is armor.

This is just what love looks like when it has survived something and decided to keep going anyway.

The broken heart on my jacket is not a wound.

It is a badge.

It means I loved something real enough to break for it and then got up off the floor and loved again even bigger because that is the only response worth having.

BE LOVE.

That’s not a suggestion.

That’s a battle cry.

FIERCE KINDNESS.

That’s not a contradiction.

That’s the whole point.

You want to change the world?

Don’t harden. 

Don’t shrink. 

Don’t you dare go quiet.

Get loud. 

Get present. 

Get your heart so wide open it terrifies you a little.

Then open it more.

I’ll be right here.

Because at the end of the day, after all the fire and the spikes and the battle cry…

MWAAAAAAAH! ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​