Last weekend I spent some time at a camp for teen boys whose stories of neglect and abandonment are the type for which you pass by on the news or in print and hope to never meet in real life.

Young men to be who hurt and fear and hate but still respond to the magic of love and the alchemy of hope. Kids who've seen and felt well beyond the parameters of our usual remedies and special moment clichés. Personalities that will only respond to the full fledged authenticity of those who would give away their hearts.

At this camp beautiful relationships were forged over rock climbs and through scars and onto fields of grace. Fields where the moments were real, history didn't matter and the Love was big.

I realized how much emphasis we place on the protection of our own hearts as if they're not meant to be shared or given away or even broken. That the depth of our vulnerability directly correlates to the depth of our love for others... And that sometimes generating this love takes work and seeing the potential of something that's hardly there...