Ink

The past doesn't have to define you Leora. Your mistakes don't have to be for ever. There's redemption. There's always redemption.

We're all a bit bad. We all have things in our lives that bring us shame and regret. Things that have hurt our souls or hurt the people we love. But 're all a bit good too. i reckon we're mostly good actually. And life is about trying to learn the balance, plot our place on the continuum... We're not just made up of good and bad: we're everything else too.

They're like a favourite novel- after you've read it once you know the story, but you still need to know it's nearby just in case you need to read it again.

I'll become someone new. Through blood and pain and ink, I can be remade.

For the first time in my life, I'm doubting my faith, and it terrifies me. For the first time, I want to change the rules. For the first time I wonder: does it matter what it says on your skin, when what's at stake is your soul?

Do you want to stick needles in the living or scalpels in the dead?

A man walks past me with his dog on a lead, bounding ahead of him, and I realize that’s how I feel: like a stupid dog who thinks it’s leading the way but all the time is being held back and controlled.

My life is more than my marks show, surely? I more to tell than this. My skin tells of the tale the government has chosen for me. I have a sudden yearning to fill every inch so that nothing is lost.

We will be ready. We will will be alert: always watchful, always wary of the snakes within our ranks. We will recover our purity and reclaim history and make it our present.

My body lets me down, betrays the real me to everyone watching - the me who is not the right kind of anything. It doesn't matter though. I'll cover this skin with new shades of black and grey; I'll become someone new. Through blood and pain and ink I can be remade. I have more to tell than this.

Friends, let this encourage you to live lives worthy of the calling we have received. Live lives to be remembered, friends.

He is good, he is wise, he is the best of us. He is not cruel, he loves us, we will not fear. He does all things for our good.

You’ve heard of love at first sight? You’ve heard of a prince that falls in love with the beautiful maiden the moment he sees her? You’ve heard the fairy tales and the happily ever afters?” I would nod, eyes wide. “Well, that’s not our story.

Now, my friends, you know that a person can't play God without expecting that God might one day choose to play with him.

A crow, a crow, the mark is a crow.