I have coated my boundaries in sacred salt
Saged the walls of my mind
Served healing teas to my soul
Soaked my dreams in moon water
Calmed my spirits with lavender sachets
I have removed the “welcome” mat from my doorstep
Hung a horseshoe above my threshold
Covered my aura in layers of steel
Cut the cord with silver shears
All to reclaim myself from you
-gws
I so want to trust what you say
But you believe what you concoct
Making your lies into
A convincing-sounding truth
-gws
She’s not beautiful
She’s a bloodied beast
A bold, brassy, badass
Bravely battling brash bandits
Bone-weary from the bullshit
Burdened and burnt out
Building a budding new self
Walking away from brutality
Becoming balanced
Banishing bad habits from her bones
Barefoot upon the earth and beaming
Beginning a brand new bountiful life
-gws
The road to healing
Is long and winding
I must follow it
One step
One breath
At a time
-gws
I have worn my tear stains like war paint
The flush of agony, despair, and rage, too
I have unleashed keening so potent
The gods stopped to answer
With a path to deliverance
-gws
Some days
Getting out of bed
Putting on my adulting pants and
Mechanically doing what needs to be done
Is an accomplishment
-gws
I’m learning how to experience joy without
my broken heart fearing that the experience will be taken from me before I can feel it fully
To feel the elation without it immediately triggering tears of mourning
It’s difficult and beautiful learning how to become whole again
-gws
I read, “and in the end, all I learned was how to be strong alone.”
I disagree.
In the end, I have learned that living a kind and authentic life earns you connections with good people with big hearts who are willing to catch and hold you when you fall.
Strength cannot exist without vulnerability. You only have to be alone if you choose to shut the world out.
Be willing to be vulnerable.
Be willing to ask for help.
Be more willing to receive help.
Build a loving village.
You don’t have to be alone to be strong.
Being alone is a choice, not a consequence.
-gws
Do onto others as you wish to be done onto
This is the call
Cast off the shackles of
Abuse
Neglect
Mistreatment
Harm
The scars that mar your ancestors
The scars that mar you
The greatest gift given in life
Free will
Wield it like a craftsman
Hold it like a pen and
Rewrite your story
Erase the patterns from your pages
Show your children that you
Can reshape the stars in the sky
Show them how to heal in the light of the moon
And the bright beacon of day
No future is written in stone
No fate inevitable
Let it begin here
By deciding the pain of the past
Ends here
-gws
I need to unlearn your touch
The sound of your breathing
Next to me in the dark
I need to unlearn a lifetime
Of everything about you
-gws
Words Wishes and Wisdom 