The Freedom Skool Blog

FRIENDS- You may not see me, but I am not far away. You may not hear me, but I am only as close as a whisper. You may not touch me, but you will always feel me. This is where you'll find me. In the calmness of a quiet spring morning. In the songs we have loved over time, you'll find me in music yet to be composed. I'll wink at you in the dew on a freshly picked rose. I'll tickle your nose in the scent of fresh strawberries. I'll rush to your head in applause on opening night and send a chill up your spine in the lake water you stick your toe in. I'll wrap you up in the blanket of a warm sunbeam and pull the corners of your mouth in the punchline of a tasteless joke. I'll be the solid stone that keeps your foothold on a hill and blow you a kiss in a cool breeze on a scorching day. I'll be the single bright star in a crimson sky that swells to a deep royal dusk, and when the night slips in through the cracks...I'll slide into your sleeping eye...

Words... Just words... I lost a piece of my soul last night. For nearly the last two years of my life I have lived within a world of hollow words. I have taken the only thing I know how to do well and made noise across the country to raise awareness about PTSD and veteran suicide. I armed myself with a guitar and my voice and have screamed across the nation the same damn words. Twenty two a day... Twenty two veterans a day take their own life and last night my brother became one of those twenty two. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a police officer for nearly twenty years he stood as a statue to all of us. I was proud to be the brother of jiu jitsu rolling, name taking, mother fucker! While I traveled the country and showed my face on tv's everywhere saying the same words I was blind to realize that our statue was crumbling. Words.... I don't want you to feel bad for me and I am in no way asking for sympathy today. I just want to remember my brother wipe away the an...

Anne Frank was reflecting upon how she had grown up while having to live in the Secret Annex. When Anne Frank thought of how she behaved during her earlier school days, she observed how her younger self was silly and “superficial” (3-7-44).  While it seemed like she was popular and happy on the outside, on the inside, Anne Frank “often felt deserted” and she “tried to drive away the emptiness [she] felt with jokes and pranks” (3-7-44). While in the Secret Annex, she was forced to be introspective, and she saw how lonely she was, how fake, how superficial, and she still tried to cover up her emptiness by “deliberately [talking] about anything and everything that was farthest from [her] thoughts”. That's when Anne Frank realized that she needed to “to face the difficult task of changing [herself] alone” (3-7-44). Anne Frank started to take herself more serious, which coincided with her introspection, as well as her writings. Anne Frank grew tired of the criticisms that were bein...

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