Last night I had a dream—not the MLKjr kind—that had kept me reflecting on a word that is very close to my heart: vulnerability.

Some time ago I discovered the importance of being vulnerable in order to heal and get stronger. Our human nature gravitates towards trying to shield ourselves from heartbreaks and in the process we band-aid our pain and pretend to go through life as if we were soldiers, closeted wounded soldiers. It is only natural to do that—who wants to be in pain?

There is no greater pain than that of being backstabbed, kicked, pushed and spitted on when we are at our lowest. Sometimes it only takes a hurtful word—a harsh judgement disguised as advice—to make us shattered when we thought we could not break into even smaller fragments. I have no doubt, however, that from those tiny pieces, we can recover ourselves like a phoenix.