Hello,

See what is true and acknowledge it’s existence. Kiss it’s wounds and apply the wisdom you have gained into a positive new direction- change of the old ways into the new.

Create, they tell me. Creator, they call me. Live life anew, they whisper to me- the angels of my world.

I feel like a loose cannon, with one more tap of my shell and I burst. Nobody likes deception. We are afraid of it. So what should we do to overcome it? Shall we observe why we are afraid? Do we deceive in return, because we fear that very same thing? Yes- by having a false identity is to deceive. And in fear we create one. When we are not honest about who we are or how we feel, that is having a false identity. There to protect ourselves is an outer shell we try to make impenetrable, but by doing this, we end up imploding from compacted identities and labels we create and accept. Until there is no more room and we scatter fragmented pieces of who we truly are from beneath the surface that end up revealing themselves anyway.

What we are paranoid or are afraid of is what we are giving in return. How do we overcome fear and distrust?

As I plunge through the caked layers of my outer surface, one I accumulated through my whole life’s experience, I understand now that I did this in order to survive the only way at the time that I knew how to. I feel the daggers penetrate slowly through my chest- sharp, straight forward and honest. Beneath the surface now. I feel it, fully. I found my children again. Unstable tears flood and I feel free. I found me. I see, and I can touch her shuddering shoulder that is afraid. I touch her, and she is aware. She and I look into each other’s eyes and we see, we feel, we reconcile, we heal, we love. I love you, I tell myself. I was just thinking some time earlier how detached I felt from who I was as a child. And I just found her through my children as I decided to sing that long requested lullabye I had mentioned a moment ago to my daughter that I was too tired for. I choose them. I choose us. I choose family. I want family. That to me is home. Not turning my face away to other stimuli in order to dull the pain and veil the truth. They help me grow and I help them grow. The inkling tugs at me that we are destined to help each other in life changing ways. Change has come through my doorstep. Welcome in. Come into my open arms. I am new. I perceive with new eyes, I am aware. I love, I am infinite.

I apply what I have learned, and I accept the pain, because it heals me. We are okay. Okay in a sense that we are where we are supposed to be. We learn at a pace that is fit for our own and ours alone. To think that you’re bad is to feel shame. To feel inner shame is to give up on yourself. But shame recognized can be a chance for starting new, awareness that you are hurting. Life is a continuous experience where we can grow, thrive, learn, fail and see that with the failure stems hope. Because without failure we would have nothing to learn and look forward to. So, shame hinders you from seeing the truth and the beauty that you really are. To avoid the taboo chase of I’m lesser and I’m greater than they, depending on others to take care of you when that is only possible by you alone, the eyes must look inward. And the truth of what lies within will create neutrality. That neutrality will bring peace. You will see we are all in this together, all responsible for our own choices. So, again I say, it’s okay you have the nervous twitch to lie, because that means there’s opportunity for inner growth. It’s okay to feel the need for revenge, because there’s opportunity to see an outside perspective. There is always a chance to grow no matter where we are, to find that true peace, that true worth, that true inner fulfillment, if you want it enough. The fact is that’s what we all desire, truly- A way back home to our hearts.

Dear Soul,

I forgive you for leaving your children. I forgive you for loathing them. Because I know you were hurting, you were loathing yourself. You were hiding from the very thing they are, that you once had forgotten, and were afraid of meeting with again- true divinity.

My Children,

You teach me. It took so much for me to see, but I am here now. I choose you. I choose you, because I have chosen to let go and heal, to love. You are the beacon that calls to me in the night. You rescue me. I choose you. I choose us.

I’m at a seat for one- A late night reminisce and smoke. I puff. Watching smoke billow past my eyes, drifting in the lamps light. This is the time for silence. The singing crickets dance, I hear. a burn from flying ash awakens me to the present, I sit. A seat for one. Why I emphasize the number of guests, I’ll tell you. ‘Cause it’s times like these I sit and muffle, ready for my head to burst. The avoided thoughts come racing in at once. Never waiting for their turn, crowding each other to be the one that comes in first. I sit, and I ponder the plithera of hums and bums of what should take place inside this human head, this tired mind. Wait your turn, I beg. And remind myself that tomorrow isn’t here and every step won’t come at once, but over time.

Or is it that I yearn for this silence? To sit alone and stew. A test to jolt me alive- wake up, I urge my avoidant mind clouding over the details of what is right in front of me. To purge through the web of lies, but punched in the face by my want for escape. How easy I think it is to avoid my reality, how easy I make myself believe it is to dance about flawlessly like a ballerina, act after act, whilst my toes bleed. So much effort to hide the pain, to avoid the truth. To go on day to day without acknowledging my spirits embrace of honesty or telling it, I love you. Is this why I sit in the shadows at my seat alone? I think it so. But do I take the bait I give, and head home- I guess this time will tell. I’m writing it so I’m assuming as well.

What is it that makes us dread being alone- How do we go on day to day doing the same thing? How is it we seem okay, routinely walking in the same steps as yesterday. How do you feel at night as you’re about to fall asleep? What are your thoughts? What do you do to cope with your pain? What is it you have taught yourself to believe, I ask myself. Aren’t we all the same? We live, we breathe, we work to pay the bills and keeps our homes, our children eating. We in kind think thoughts amidst our minds all day, and yet we separate ourselves from fear of pain. Pain that another may cause us to feel inside, too far down to where it’s as if we might not survive. Because comforting ourselves seems like the ultimate impossible task, so we blind the truth and betray our hearts with false reality. Say it! What is it you want? I plead inside. Searching. Sitting where no one can hear me, where no one can find me out. So why is it still so hard to be honest when no ears can hear the truth I shout?

I remember sitting on that stoop, dirt powdered on my pants while smacking skin exposed to thirsty bugs ready to quench for their meals. I talked to God, sun waving goodbye to another routy day, pines blackened in front of the receding fire in the sky. I layed my eggs in his basket, because trust I was good at giving, and he I never saw, but felt. I was there, but then I wasn’t. Lost in realms, off to my curious escape. My heart gaped open, always chatting with the things I never saw but felt. Always running away from feeling the pressures of guilt- Guilt I was given, guilt I built. I was there, then I was not. But I saw, and what I could see was farther reaching than what was- In essence, I was free. We packed up and drove home, down the hill back to our coop. And as I walked up to that door I’d grown accustom to, I stared so mesmerized by how my eyes could see. The entrance seemed alive, new life enlightened within me. I remembered how those bulby flowers bobbed and mocked me every step I passed them. But their purple hues rich with vibrant color kissed my tickled tummy, and blew their beauty, warm under my skin. Shall I stop here for a while, and gaze upon this new found anomaly? Why should I be so lucky to feel? How desperate I was to hold its cohesive frame and believe it something real. 5 years young I dawdled on, and played with my perception. Now I see it, now I don’t, and smiled inside to know I hold the key to how I want to perceive and how I don’t. The moment passed, and I walked through that loosened door. Effortlessly swept away from night’s of soiled sheets and crying to mom on the bathroom floor. Her tired hands, I remember, cradled my arms. And I built- again the guilt, unintended, arose from what was out of our control. The bulby bud bloomed and taunted again, but wasn’t it nice to see it once as it truly was? – This memory now triggered decades on, of that long forgotten friend. Her untethered soul’s song. Recalled from a spiralling madness, taking on too much. Scattered amongst vines tangled in attempts of control, over and under I go. How do I start to release the knot that created itself with what were good intentions?

I snap the buckle. You should know this already, I say, as I run to the next necassary task. Herd the children. Good morning, goodbye. Hello and Good night. Will you pick me up in the day? No, baby, not today. Flip the mat over to its cleaner side and sweep up the rinds toppled by my feet. Pull back the cup that did not suffice and drown in the parade of endless fires to suppress and feed, repatching the expectation, the unmet need. Sink into the seat where I feel most free, fingers tightening around the wheel like desperate leaches thirsty for blood to regain any youth I lost. Look down to the sprinkled bags and rotten food wedged barely hidden by the seat and door. I stare at it, front of my mother’s house, not the same but the memory rebirths itself into my mind. Hello old friend. It’s nice to see you again. So young I seemed then, looking back now. But I didn’t feel that way at the time. Who would have thought a 5 year old girl could teach herself how to love 20 years down the road? That’s right- because to love is to let go. To love is to be free.