you wanted me to dream… you’d say… you better stay hellbent in your heart…

you wanted me to dream. and you just wouldn't ever let me give in to the give-up

you wanted me to dream.
and you just wouldn’t ever let me
give in to the give-up.

you’d say…
“you better stay hellbent in your heart
and go where it wants you to go… because
it will ache if you don’t.”

and when i ache a little
from waiting on a dream, i remember
what you said, and i stay hellbent in my heart,
and i try to go where it wants me to go…
because i know that it will ache
even more if i don’t.

– butterflies rising

Read More →

where there’s wing-shaped air to stretch into all around me…

there is nothing i could lose that i would miss as much as i have missed the feel of my own soul when i wasn't listening to it

there is
nothing i could lose
that i would miss
as much as i have missed
the feel of my own soul
when i wasn’t listening to it,
and i’m listening now…
and it’s telling me
that i am meant to be
where my lungs can breathe easy
and where there’s wing-shaped air
to stretch into all around me

– butterflies rising

Read More →

we find our soulmates in the places we go to find our souls…

i think we find our soulmates in the places we go to find our souls

where we are drawn and pulled. and when we are shifted and stirred. in what makes us feel. and feel alive. or feel understood, like outstretched hands and lifelines, like home. in our self-searching, where we feel soul memory. or in the inspiration touches and in what feels like free and brings us wide-lung breathing. and in our fire-catching and lightning-chasing, they meet us there with sparks. where we light-find and heart-reach or lose breath and dream wild… i think we find our soulmates in the places we go to find our souls.

– butterflies rising

Read More →

dream your wild dreams, love…

her fire is drawn to your fire

dream
your wild dreams, love,
and chase your racing heartbeats,
find it and feed it and play in your own fire…
and she’ll find you.
she’ll meet you where moonlight meets soul light
and everything you both ache for collides,
because her fire is drawn to your fire.

– butterflies rising

Read More →

i’ve got dreams… ones that are drenched in art and taste like adventure…

i've got dreams... ones that are drenched in art and taste like adventure

i’ve got dreams…
ones that are drenched in art
and taste like adventure…
ones that feel like
being kissed until my heart bursts…
ones that open up my whole soul
like a wildflower on fire.

– butterflies rising

Read More →

my mama had dreams…

i didn't know it for most of my growing up... but my mama had dreams.

i didn’t know it
for most of my growing up…
but my mama had dreams.
dreams that weren’t of ring shapes and dress colors.
she had dreams that were drenched in art
and tasted like adventure…
ones that felt like being kissed
until her heart burst…
ones that opened up her whole soul
like a wildflower on fire.
but i didn’t know it.
i didn’t know it because she tucked them away
in pretty memory boxes
and hid them in tattered journals that
she pushed aside for perfectly-scripted scrapbooks,
and she buried all her burning desires under
yes ma’ams and sunday dresses
and sweet, supportive smiles,
while any part of her that ever maybe might
could’ve known that she mattered…
by herself, for herself,
and belonging. to. herself.
suffocated quietly under the white noise
of all those voices that had told her that
all that really mattered
was that she had been chosen… by him.

and when i started to see that inside of her
was a whole other woman that she ached to be…
i knew i couldn’t go through my life aching for the me
i’d never be, in that same way.

so all i’ve ever wanted… is to know that i matter.
by myself. for myself. and belonging to myself.
chosen by no one, but me.

– butterflies rising

Read More →

in the way a flower out in the wilderness is beautiful…

in the way a flower out in the wilderness is beautiful, touched by nothing but open air and wild sun

in the way a
flower out in the wilderness is beautiful,
touched by nothing but open air
and wild sun…

i hope you know… you matter now.
chosen by no one.
belonging to yourself.

– butterflies rising

Read More →