Broken, bent, beaten and burned.
Spirit weary, and my belief worn thin.

My mind turned,
What I now 'knew' I had to unlearn.
What I now felt, I had to upturn.

To fight the doubt,
To fight the fear,
Took a crack in the shell
For me to peer,
Within.

Realize
I needed real ties,
No half-truths, no fallacies,
No small talk,
No niceties.

I need you raw and real.
My strength is fear.

To face it together,
Win alongside eachother.

A need to learn,
The depths of the world.

Only then could I be me.

All my life, I've been around some of the strongest of women.

True inspirations. All unique and incredible in their own way.

From a mother unafraid of a patriarchy to her mother, who treats age as just another logistic.

These past few months I was lucky to again, live among some of the strongest women I know.
Every day, intentionally or not, was a lesson to learn.

From them, this I learned:

*To live with grace and pride.
To love the the little things,
Always have wonder on my side.

From opening up, trusting a disruptive world.
To speak freely,
Yet always have a loving word.

To learn, to create.
To improvise,
And know that life's too short,
To refuse to compromise.

To care for all.
But care for the self just a tad bit more.

To make the most of a warm, sunny day,
Ride my bike a lot, if not everywhere.


To live fierce,
To love free.

And to apologize for being all you can be?

Never.


For this, I thank you.
For you, forever grateful.

To some of the strongest women I know.