“I’ve always had a blessed life, but only since I started volunteering my time to help others, have I learned to count my blessings. Not everybody has had an amazing family and support system life I grew up with. It can be easy to take this for granted! About a year ago I decided it was time to give back, and it has changed my life. I had been working jobs that I didn’t care about just make money, and now I have work with purpose. For the first time ever, several hours of every day are spent toward the goal of empowering those less fortunate than me, and giving them some of the tools they need to live a positive life. This work for me is a gift and a blessing! I hope that everyone who gets the chance to read this can also be inspired to change lives everyday.”  – Anonymous

“How easy it is to ignore cliché’s… to let them pass by you like another advertisement or being a part of your day. “You won’t miss them until they’re gone.” Of course. You ignore it until you actually lose someone. Someone close. I lost my father. I wasn’t surprised I lost him, but we weren’t speaking when he left this earth. Unimportant fights and negativity that gets in the way of love is that which we were consumed. My radical dream is to rewind and tell that person I love them every single day. Not just him but every one I came across. I don’t care if I make them uncomfortable. I want love to spill out of me- I want my dam to be broken.” -Anonymous

“Do not ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Harold Whitman.  What makes you come alive? – Anonymous

“You are beautiful and powerful.

You are vital and important to this world.

You matter, your words matter.

The lives you touch are better because of you.” – Anonymous

“Everyone is special. Everyone’s special. Wonderful ideas should be heard. Our differences make us unique. We are wonderful, people of the world.” – Anonymous

“Life isn’t fair, we can’t change that, but we can make everyone around us feel better and feel love and happiness. This is the most important thing.” – Anonymous

“I sat in the back of the cop car before the fire had even been put out. Where I was and how I got there was as alien to me as the little green men that populate the dreams of Steven Spielberg. My life was in shambles. I burned myself to the ground. The building that was literally in flames was just collateral damage. My favorite movie ever includes a line that became my mantra after this moment. It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything. From the ashes of despair, abuse and addiction, I decided to craft a new life with a new outlook. I wanted to be the example. Although it is always a precarious dance, with lots of forward and backwards movement, missteps and the occasional face plant, I have dedicated this dance to my own blasted past and the frightened little boy who was thrust into manhood all too early. Some of us are dealt a royal flush; some of us are a few cards shy of a full deck. But we don’t all have to play poker. We can be magicians. We can cut the cars up and collage the kings and queens into a beautiful mosaic. We can create beauty from the bits and pieces of our fragmented lives. We are powerful, capable, and glorious. So long as we allow ourselves to be.”  -Link

More Flip Side Stories provided by Art from Ashes Denver

Art from Ashes is a local Denver Non-profit that uses the creative arts to transform the lives of struggling youth (check out their website at www.artfromashes.org).  Young poets, artists, and just regular people at Art From Ashes shared the following Flip Side entries: