light up your own…

there is nothing about the way another woman unfolds into her own space that takes away from the way you can unfold into yours. you don’t need to try to dim any other woman’s brightness or put out any other woman’s fire; you only need to look inside and light up your own.

– butterflies rising

start looking inside and light up your own.

you can’t actually
dim someone else’s brightness.
it’s part of them. it’s part of who they are.
and no matter what you do,
it’s not in your power to take it.
even if you try to create tarnish around them,
nothing you do can ever make them less bright
or beautiful or creative or magnetic or less of any other
thing that they hold within them.
trying to tear others down will only ever make you
feel less beautiful than you are.
no amount of trying to put out someone else’s light
is ever going to heal the darkness you feel.
and the truth is, that fight you feel against their glow
is just your soul aching for you to fight for your own.
so step back and take your focus off of them. take a breath in.
stop trying to put out someone else’s fire…
start looking inside and light up your own.

– butterflies rising

trying to force another flower to close
will never help you bloom, and trying to put out
someone else’s fire will never help you burn…
waging war on other women is never going to give
you peace inside of yourself… and that’s what
you’re truly looking for.

– butterflies rising

you are a wild thing…
but you are such a tender thing

– butterflies rising

let yourself feel all the ways you're made of flowers

i think you’re made
of flowers; how you bloom
when there’s light on your skin.
you feel all that fire in your soul,
and it’s. so. beautiful.
but keep letting the sweetness in.
let yourself feel the glow.
be gentle with your raging heart
and softer with your chaos.
you are a wild thing,
but you are such a tender thing…
so maybe let even a little more of
that gentle in with how you grow.
dig out from the dark what you need to
and burn down what you have to
but then let yourself light up.
let in a little more sweetness
and a little more glow…
and let yourself feel all the ways
you’re made of flowers.