An open letter to those burdened by the weight of the world..

Dignity is what sustains us when all else has been lost. Self-respect and a sense of self-worth, the innermost armament of the soul, lies at the heart of humanness; to be deprived of it is to be dehumanized, to be cast below mankind.

Men suffering from a lack of dignity experience profound loneliness and find that hope is almost impossible to retain. Without dignity, identity is erased. In its absence, men are defined not by themselves, but by the circumstances in which they are forced to live. The stubborn retention of dignity, even in the face of extreme hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it. The loss of it can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty. It is as lethal as a well-aimed bullet.

Define yourself, not by the habits which are slowly erasing what dignity you have left or the circumstances which lend to the numbness in your soul, but by the things which return to you a sense of self-worth and self-respect. Step outside of yourself and honestly see who and what you've become. All that numbness and cold in your soul - that is the absence of dignity. You'll never heal until you understand this..

Note: The majority of this blurb was taken indirectly from Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, which is an exceptional book that will inspire and uplift the heaviest of spirits!!