Wherever this finds you...
May your holiday season be all you want and need
May the returning sun shine warmly upon your path
May your hearth ring with the sounds of laughter and merriment
May the quiet season bring you respite
May the new year make manifest abundance and unadulterated joy
-gws
Touch the grass of your trauma
If it helps you remember why you moved on
But do not root there
There’s nothing but poison in that soil
-gws
What I'm thinking is:
This is hard shit.
That sometimes grabbing that fact by the throat and screaming in its face is necessary from time to time.
Sometimes sitting in the shadow of that truth is required when our spirits are tired and our hearts so broken.
And when we're done, we rest. We breathe. And we rise and fight some more.
Because we're mothers.
-gws
I plunge my hands
Into the dark soil
To harvest the fruits
Of gratitude into the light
It is practical work
Grounding work
Spiritual work
To nourish my soul
Drawing upon the root work
Already deeply planted
I turn my face to the sun
-gws
I cannot be a human today
Let alone a woman
I am a raw exposed wound
Showered in salty
Reminders of the abuses
We have already endured
And I am unmade
-gws
I still hold the smallest flickering flame of hope
Smoldering painfully in my belly
I keep trying to stomp it out
Smother it
But it persists
Despite the obvious futility of its existence
It will not listen to reason
Will not extinguish beneath showers of bitter tears
I must endure it
Ignore it
Until it gutters and dies on its own
-gws
Speaking one’s truth is an act
Of rebellion
Of reclaiming
Of liberation
It is stepping into the light
After living in the dark for too long
It is my story to tell
And I will tell it as part of my healing
-gws
I am, now, trying to forgive myself for the choices I made while trying to survive
For staying long past the expiration date in a relationship that had long been toxic and rotten
I deserved bette
-gws
On this ordinary October day
I did my part to change the world
In a most extraordinary way
I voted
For who I hope will be
Our first woman president
With proud ancestors at my back
My children’s future cast before me
I released my grain of sand into the glass
To do my small part to move us forward
Towards a future the mothers preceding me
Could only hope to dream of
For their progeny
-gws
I identify with Persephone
I am a spring maiden at heart
Celebrating life’s sunshine and rainbows
A believer in growth and renewal
Optimistic and hopeful
I also hold a dread queen in my soul
Content to sit quietly in darkness
Observant and calculated
Unafraid of the shadows
Happy to don my crown
Glimmering with pomegranate seeds
The color of blood
To remind the foolish
I am not the one
-gws
Words Wishes and Wisdom 