You’re a star. Oh yes you are. Shining brightly through the eyes of a person who’s destined to go causing rainbows every time she looks at a cloud.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe on Mondays. And Tuesdays. And on the days that get lost in between, like Wednesdays. But somewhere in there, there’s magic. You’ve seen it. You’ve made it. You’ve had it. You’ve lost it. And that, my friends, means that you can find it again. Keep looking. Keep building. Keep kissing.

You rock! And you know someone who rocks. Maybe silently in a chair, maybe with a pretend guitar in the air, but wherever they are, they’re there. Rockin’. And this one’s for them.

If on your birthday, you want to wear a mustache on a stick, that’s okay by me.

It’s party time! Don’t be shy! Put on your party hat, pick up a piñata bat, and have a bash!

This drawing is for Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head for standing up to the Taliban for her right to an education as a Pakistani girl. She survived. So now we know that the pen is mightier than the sword, and: The heart is stronger than the gun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai

This is for the kidnapped. It’s for the wrongly imprisoned. It’s for anyone who is trapped. My heart goes out to you.

It’s for Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, and Gina DeJesus, who were kidnapped in Cleveland, Ohio, raped for 11 years, and served cake by their captor on the anniversaries of their abductions. Thank goodness they broke free.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/victims-ohio-kidnap-case-speak-out_n_3565442.html

It’s for several innocent parents in Kern County who were wrongly accused of molesting their children, wrongly sentenced to years of imprisonment, and wrongly imprisoned for many years. Eventually they were released.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kern_County_child_abuse_cases

It’s for Matt and Grace Huang, a Chinese-American couple in Qatar who have been imprisoned and wrongly accused of murdering of their adopted daughter who died in her sleep because it was easier for local police to imagine that the couple was trafficking African children than to believe that they were intentionally adopting the poorest of the poor, who were “not good-looking” and “shared none of their hereditary traits.” Matt and Grace are in prison today.

http://californiainnocenceproject.org/read-their-stories/grace-matthew-huang

http://freemattandgrace.com/

This drawing is for Kainat Soomro, a Pakistani girl who was kidnapped and gang raped by four men. She went to the police to report it and they did nothing. Then tribal elders declared her kari, “black female”, for having sex outside of marriage. It is a tradition for the family of kari to kill her. Yes, it is tradition for parents to kill their own daughter “to preserve the honor of the family.” They refused to kill their daughter. They were threatened, and then someone killed their son.

My heart goes out to Kainat and her family. I tried to draw to a large, ugly thing because she is fighting something big and ugly. The flag is supposed to represent everyone who’s on her side, and an ideal country, whose only tradition and law is love.

http://jezebel.com/5844966/pakistani-family-threatened-for-refusing-to-kill-daughter-who-was-raped

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kainat_Soomro

Whether you’re a queen, a king, a jack, or a joker, you’ve got to play the hand you’re dealt—at least until you have time to rearrange it so that you get all the hearts and can shoot the moon. That’s what it’s all about. Go long, swing for the fence, take a shot at the moon. Your heart’s big enough to make it.

You either are a beach person, or you’re not. You either like sand on your feet, or you don’t. You either gaze at the stars, listen to the ocean, and watch the moon, or you don’t. You either understand beach people, or you don’t. You either understand leisure, or you don’t. Pick a side. And pick mine.