Yesterday i looked at the noticeboard at the supermarket.  I don't do that often but amoungst the cars and lawnmowers for sale i saw this.

It broke my heart.  

his kind of lonely sorrow is the thing that makes people desperate and angry and creates the kind of violence and crime that our western world seems to be particularly good at squeezing out of the lives of people who live enclosed by poverty and hopelessness.

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Dear person looking for a trustworthy family,

Look into my eyes, right now, as i am holding you by the shoulders.

Ok, so let me raise your chin,
gently,
with my crooked finger.

There.

look at me, at my eyes that have seen some things and cried a lot.
look at me, imperfect, scared, lonely and brave just like you.

I know you are hurting.
I don't know why or how or who or when 
but i know you are hurting and you have every right to hurt.

Your family are untrustworthy.
That is the kind of injury that marks a heart forever.

I know that i know that you were worth more than that.
i know that they hurt you with such consequences that you are reeling

i know that it took courage to write your note.

look at me

I am no different.
All of these people walking past us with their busy lives and their trolleys either too full or not full enough,
the people with others, the people on their own
none of them are any different.

Each and every one of us have been hurt.
That is not to deny your pain 
oh no.
what you endured is something you deserve to be heard on and held while you heal from.
Nothing should ever diminish what you suffered

And know this too.  
You are not the only one.

We all hurt.
Each of us.

Some of us are just not wise enough or smart enough to call out in our pain and ask for help.
You were.
Some of us believe the bullshit that we should put up with it or that we have to make peace with it or worse and worse that we deserve it.

But you, 
wise and tender heart
You chose to ask for help and so i want you to feel me looking into your eyes and see the truth,

No one is unworthy of love
We might be injured broken confused suffering, wobbly, needy, angry, lonely, reactive, abrasive, scared shitless and a million other things that we have been taught to try and hide.
But the truth is that it is a miracle you make it here at all. 
It is a miracle that you had the courage to write your advertisement.

And i want you to know you are worthy of love and belonging that you can trust and if they can't give it to you then you go and find people who will.

You deserve good things.  You deserve to be held in trust.
Now i will let go of your shoulders and with one long look in your eye i will say.

Go and find kindness because it is your birthright.

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Henrietta Lacks  born August 1920 died October 1951.  Ms Lacks was a working class African American woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in early 1951 and died later that year from metastases.   During her diagnosis and treatment, without her consent, cells were taken from both her healthy and cancerous tissue.  Cells from the cancer tissue were found to be particularly resilient in laboratory conditions and were able to be replicated outside the human body for the first time - the first "immortal cell line".  These cells came to be known as HeLa cells.

Since this time Ms Lack's cells have been reproduced in immense quantities and used for a huge variety of purposes.  

• 20 Tons of her cells have been reproduced.
• More of Ms Lack's cells have been outside her body than were ever in her body
• There have been nearly 11000 patents taken out using her cells.
• Ms Lack's cells were the first ones successfully cloned
• Ms Lack's cells were used in the development of the polio vaccination


• Ms Lack's family were only informed of what had been done with their ancestor's physical legacy when scientists contaminated the HeLa line and wished to get new sources.

Poignantly, this was the photo many family members carried around of their grandmother.

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