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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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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you cannot love yourself and apologize for who you are at the same time…

you cannot love yourself and apologize for who you are at the same time

you cannot love yourself and apologize for
who you are at the same time… and you don’t need to say
“i’m sorry” for the way your perfect atoms find
themselves falling into place as the beautiful
universe that you are.

– butterflies rising

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little seeds, someday flowers… today i will be good to myself, and tomorrow maybe a little bit better…

little seeds, someday flowers... today i will be good to myself, and tomorrow maybe a little

little seeds, someday flowers…

today i will
be good to myself,
and tomorrow maybe
a little bit better,
until being good to me
is a little easier,
and maybe even someday
not so hard at all.
maybe these are just little seeds
but i’ll keep giving them
touches of sunlight…
just a little hope here
and a little grace there
and a little more light in those
places holding all the fear,
and then maybe all these little seeds
just might grow until someday they
become flowers…
and then i will be made of flowers.

– butterflies rising

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i’ve apologized for myself for so much of my life… and i’m still learning how to take up space…

i’ve apologized for myself for so much of my life... and i’m still learning how to take up space

i’ve apologized for myself for so much
of my life… and i’m still learning how to take
up space without feeling like i’m holding an
“i’m sorry” under every breath.

– butterflies rising

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aren’t even mine…

it’s one of the darkest feelings i’ve ever known... unworthy.  and maybe i want to learn to start questioning it

it’s one of the darkest feelings
i’ve ever known… unworthy.

and maybe i want to learn to start
questioning it when i feel it.
like… is it always even mine?

because if it’s from someone else…
someone else’s unkindness, or judgment,
or their own unworthiness they’re projecting…
then i want to learn to say no.

i think maybe my own battles would get a little
easier to face if i wasn’t also fighting the
ones that aren’t even mine.

– butterflies rising

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this world can feel so harsh and ugly to you because you are so soft and vulnerable… just like flowers…

soft and vulnerable and beautiful, just like flowers.

this world can
feel so harsh and ugly
to you because you are
so soft and vulnerable
and beautiful… like flowers.
now imagine this world
without flowers.
so please let yourself be
something in this world that is soft
and vulnerable and beautiful,
just like flowers.

– butterflies rising

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