My favorite poets, writers, bloggers all have one thing in common: they are all seekers… after truth and beauty, after peace, love, joy, and understanding. They are standing there open-hearted, looking up at the sky and smiling or crying their questions out to the universe. Those who seem all fixed up.. prim and together don’t seem as lovely or artful as those with little cracks where the light shines in.

Perhaps that’s why I love a good potty-mouth mama, a woman who isn’t afraid to talk about what’s really going on in her soul, in her dreams (outside of who is potty-trained and who isn’t sleeping through the night), in her heart.

It is these open, brave people who help me walk truly in my own shoes.. who give me the courage to chase after the biggest dreams, the biggest love, and not just settle into my spiritual easy chair and snooze.

To all of you peppers out there, this one’s for you:

WHEN YOU ARE OLD

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

–W. B. Yeats

PEPPER GIRLZ RULE

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Today at Babble, the heartbreak when your child is left out, bullied, or otherwise mistreated. Ouch!