You Are Not Too Much {remix} | Jeanette LeBlanc

To the one who grieves loudly, or for longer than people believe you should, or in ways others find uncomfortable or inconvenient or messy.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who laughs at top volume and who always wears the clothes that feel the most like you, regardless of their stares. To the one who takes up space and covers the world in glitter and lacks the apology most find acceptable.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who has learned to ask for what they want and who dares to demand what they deserve. Who wears desire like it was an outfit made only for them, who claims their right to pleasure.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who cannot blend in because of ethnicity or expression or ability. Who sticks out in every crowd. Who faces the fears and the condemnation and who becomes the uninvited poster child for a cause or a label or a community without their consent.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who lives outside the margins and colors outside the lines and never quite manages to fit into the predictable or expected or polite.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

Too the one who is invisible in their own spaces of belonging. Who does not wear their otherness on the surface, and so is unclaimed or unwelcome by the people with whom they most identify or wish to belong.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who holds hard boundaries and releases righteous anger and who starts revolutions in the name of what they know to be good and right and true.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the paradigm shifter. To the earth shaker. To the change maker. To the pot-stirrer. To the call-it-like-you-see-it, no holds barred truth teller.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who lives inside a small box that someone else built and stuffed you inside without ever asking you who you were or what you wanted. Who knows they are made for more but who is told to sit down, stop dreaming, be quiet, stay safe.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one whose story has been silenced by the greater narrative. Who flies under the radar out of necessity or safety or preference. To the one who so badly needs to be heard by a world that refuses to listen.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who rocked every damn boat they ever put you on.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who lives with illness or trauma or disability, who finds daily life harder than most could imagine, who the world would rather not see, or acknowledge or assist.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one born into a body that does not match your soul.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who refuses to dial back the dreams they call childish or unrealistic or ridiculous. Who practices that acceptance speech in the mirror and gives imaginary interviews and still sees their name in lights when they close their eyes.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who lives wild. who pushes the edges. who thrives in unconventional spaces. who says the things others are not willing to say.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who has come to learn what they want in life, in work, in love, in relationships. Who refuses to settle for anything less. Who has walked away to save their own life and who will do it again and again and again as many times as it takes.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the agitator. The bridge burner. The holy roller. The open road freedom chaser. The off the grid wild heart. The one who refuses to follow the rules.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who devotes their lives to a justice greater than themselves. Who places humanity at the center. Who gives up so much to offer the world everything they have.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who makes art that nobody understands or sees or buys or wants. To the one who would rather make art than pay bills or collect possessions or fall in love or do what the world expects.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who falls in love too fast, or too often, or too completely. Who offers their whole patchwork heart, again and again, who loves with everything they have as if their own life depends on it.

To the one who nobody understands. The outcast. The misfit. The picked last for the team. The never quite right. The desperate to belong.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

To the one who has hurt others on their path to wholeness. Who has cheated or lied or been unkind but who knows this is not the sum total of their beautiful heart. The one who holds regret, who seeks redemption everywhere.

YOU ARE NOT TOO MUCH.

You have never been too much.

You are a growing and changing and evolving human being.

You are complex and nuanced and hold multitudes within.

You are heart and soul and spirit and fire and roots and wings.

You are glorious.

I celebrate you.