i said, i want to learn to trust you, but i don’t know how…

learn to trust you. then see what your heart has to say about me, and follow that. - butterflies rising

i said,
“i want to learn to trust you,
but i don’t know how.”

and you said,
“then don’t. learn to trust you.
then see what your heart has to say about me,
and follow that.”

– butterflies rising

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and i closed my eyes in the middle of all the wild noise… because there are dreams over there…

and i closed my eyes in the middle of all the wild noise and just stayed still - butterflies rising poem

and i closed my eyes
in the middle of all the wild noise
and just stayed still… and i felt myself
being pulled that way.
and so i asked, “why that way?”
and i heard, “because there are dreams over there.”

and that feels like as good a reason as any
to ever do anything…
and so i’m going to go that way.

– butterflies rising

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and you’re in this place where there are no footprints in front of you…

and you're in this place where there are no footprints in front of you

and you’re in this place where there are no footprints in front of you, and there isn’t anyone else here to ask, and they wouldn’t have your answers even if they were… everything here only feels like you. but it’s how you know that it’s your path.

– butterflies rising

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as many things as you want to be…

in spite of anyone else's barriers and limitations and boxes and stories...  i hope you let yourself dream. and search. and discover.

no matter anyone else’s barriers
and limitations and boxes and stories…

i hope you let yourself dream.
and search. and discover. and grow.
and be many-layered, and curious, and unlimited…
and passionate and wild… and soft and vulnerable…
and have depth or lightness…
and be found or lost…

and be as many other things as you want to be.

and i hope you find a way to be unafraid and
unapologetic and undeterred as you do…

because other people’s barriers
and limitations and boxes and stories
are just that… theirs.

– butterflies rising

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just to be young​…

i just don't know what to say other than i am sorry that we've asked you to be burdened

i just don’t
know what to say
other than i am sorry
that we’ve asked you
to be burdened with living
something like warriors
to only give you afterwishes
and more of these i’m sorries
and i hope that someday soon
you get to feel safe
and that the only thing we
ask of you is just to be young.

– butterflies rising

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love is not a one- size-fits-all box we’re meant to fit into…

sugar + flowers… the sweet. the soft. the vulnerable things that tender the walls and break your heart open

love languages…

blood + fire… the wild. the passionate.
the visceral things that burn in your veins,
that bite at your senses, that give you a pulse

sugar + flowers… the sweet. the soft.
the vulnerable things that tender the walls
and break your heart open

love + soul… the deep. the true. the heart.
the lungs. the breathing. the wings. the free…
the things you ache for… and the ones that ache back

magic + stars… the infinite. the destined.
the things you feel beyond words, beyond bodies,
beyond… before… after… always.

– butterflies rising

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