Become vulnerable to participate fully in the emotional grandeur and poignancy of life.

My 8-year-old friend’s smile is more powerful than the blazing of the sun.

Even though he has lost his parents when he was 2, he loves fiercely. I met Abel at an orphanage a couple of months ago. It would be easy to argue he doesn’t yet fully understand what love means, yet I believe it is precisely because there is no scarring or mental concepts attached to his understanding that he expresses it so purely.

I wonder sometimes how he loves so freely.

When he grows up he wants to be a ninja that can fight 10 people at once. I have never once seen him angry at the world for taking his parents at a young age. I have never once seen him pout and hole himself up in his room shutting the world out. He always smiles and jokes with other children.

He laughs joyously as if he lives inside a castle. And he might as well have because his heart is full of love that others seeing him eye him with jealousy.

His eyes sparkle with enjoyment.

And I marvel at him.

He expresses love whenever he feels like it — whether that is 10 times a day or none at all. His eyes assume an unbearable tenderness. A desire to see me happy whenever I visit him — making me question moments when I find a self-directed dislike growing in me.

This boy of 8 loves fiercely.

His heart is open. You can hear its crack from the hardship life has thrown at him before he is even ten.

And yet.

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To your inspiration,

Banchi