When I go,
don’t learn to live without me,
just learn to live with my love,
in a different way.
And if you need to see me,
close your eyes,
or look in your shadow,
when the sun shines,
I’m there.
Sit with me in the quiet and you will know,
that I did not leave.
There is no leaving when a soul is blended with another.
When I go,
don’t learn to live without me,
just learn to look for me in the moments.
I will be there.
Donna Ashworth
HELLO SEPTEMBER,
THE SEASON OF LETTING GO
And so begins the season of letting go,
when Mother Nature shows us all,
how it’s done.
Let go,
free yourself,
shake it off,
drop it,
give way for the new.
Create space for new thoughts, new ideas,
new adventures and new connections,
by shedding the dead weight you’ve been carrying around,
for so long.
And whilst you are there, being reborn and renewed,
let go of old anxieties too.
Let go of any doubts, fears or beliefs which no longer serve you well.
Release bitterness or past hurts which feast on your beauty.
Be brave,
Don’t fear the nakedness as your leaves slip away.
Mother Nature doesn’t,
watch and learn.
Donna Ashworth
"When you're all alone in the woods, it's very difficult to understand what you're going into offices and cinemas for. And suddenly you don't want all that anymore." (Erich Kästner)
WHEN YOU'VE LOST SOMEONE YOU LOVE...
Do not make the mistake of living in sadness, or living small to honour their absence.
You owe it to them to live even more vividly than before.
If they could reach you, they would surely say..
“Take the love you had for me and turn it into gladness,
use the love you had for me to drive away the sadness.”
Love is an energy, so powerful, so all-consuming that when the person you felt all that love for is not here, you are a vessel filled with a boundless source of power that has nowhere to go.
Harness it.
Use it to burn even more brightly and live even more loudly than before.
Share the love you felt for that person with all the other special people in your life, for it is limitless. There is no end to it and there never, ever should be.
You see unlike us, love never dies, it carries on from one generation to the next. A wonderfully comforting thought.
If they could reach you they would surely say…
“Make my time on earth count loudly, so I’ve not lived in vain.
Use the love we shared to make more love and not more pain.”
If you are struggling to move on, to find the way to carry on. Without them.
This is it.
Use the love.
Carry them with you in all that you do, using their love as the source.
It is what they would want…
Words by Donna Ashworth
How brave you are for slowing down. For not finishing that to-do list.
How courageous you are for not crossing that finish line, because your body said “enough.”
How fearless you are for choosing the quiet of your soul over those voices driving you always towards more.
How bold, how rebellious -
you, out there,
honoring your own natural rhythm,
going against the culture’s breakneck speed.
We tend to make heroes of those hungry with ambition, relentlessly doing, producing always more.
We applaud those who refuse to stop or rest. Who push themselves so hard in the name of achievement, that they sacrifice their body and soul and heart in the process. We celebrate those who are ill or aging but never show it, never slow down, never reveal a moment of vulnerability.
This drivenness can be heroic, at times. It can be necessary for our survival or the greater good.
But,
I want to make heroes of those who slow down.
I want to make heroes of those who listen to their bodies, who do not strive for more than what the soul truly needs.
I want to make heroes of those who do not force or push, but surrender to each moment as it opens.
I want to applaud those who may not be driven towards success as we know it, but instead are nurturing something deep and subtle and needed.
I want to celebrate those brave enough to cease all doing, even for a second, and sit with the ache in their hearts. A task many find harder than summiting the highest peak.
I want to make heroes of those who honor their limitations.
Who are unable to keep up with the busy-ness of our times, yet show up to each profound, necessary moment.
It is truly an act of courage and rebellion to do any such thing, in a world demanding you resist your own self, your own rhythm, your own soul.
And the paradox is, that often when we cease our incessant doing, even for a minute, and listen to that quiet voice within, we discover what it is we absolutely must do, and what instead can fall away.
We finally hear the call towards what serves our soul, and what then will serve the world. Nothing more, nothing less.
A hero is simply someone brave.
So come, be softly brave.
Be a new, quieter kind of hero.
Few may applaud, it’s true, but your soul certainly will ..
~ Leyla Aylin ~
My mother kept a garden
A garden of the heart
She planted all the good things
That gave my life its start
She turned me to the sunshine
And encouraged me to dream
Fostering and nurturing
The seeds of self-esteem
And when the winds and rain came
She protected me enough
But not too much because she knew
I'd need to stand up strong and tough
Her constant good example
Always taught me right from wrong
Markers for my pathway
That will last a lifetime long
I am my mother's garden
I am her legacy
And I hope today she feels the love
Reflected back from me.
~ Vincent Tripolone III
“Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them.
They move on. They move away.
The moments that used to define them are covered by
moments of their own accomplishments.
It is not until much later, that
children understand;
their stories and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories
of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones,
beneath the water of their lives.”
Paul Coelho
Here’s to all the strong women out there
Who stand up for themselves and face the world with a heart of soldier.
Here’s to all the passionate women out there
Who won’t let the world stop them from achieving their dreams and doing the things they love.
Here’s to all the independent women out there
Who have been there for themselves and show that they can.
Here’s to all the unbreakable women out there!
Who have been knocked down for countless times but they find a way to rise and stand up again.
Here’s to all the women in this world
You are beautiful, you are worthy, and no one has the power to dim your light ..
~ Samiha Totanji ~ #internationalwomensday
"Grandma, I'm tired. So tired of this life..."
"Take your tiredness, my child, and wrap it around yourself. Like a blanket in the cold winter months. Tiredness comes to make you a nest, to bring you to wear comfortable clothes, to make you sink into its warm embrace. I invite you to stay within yourself. Without strength, without thoughts, without actions. Like the snow that covers everything to soften the world, to make it muffled, to protect it from noise. Accept the flakes of your tiredness and let yourself be completely covered by them."
"I could die buried under there..."
"You will be reborn instead. Like the seed in the ground. Do not resist your weariness, do not reject it with a thousand actions, a thousand intentions, a thousand feelings of guilt. It just wants to take you by the hand and lead you to sink into the void. Right there, where the source of every inner strength lies. They taught us to be strong by resisting. But it is in surrendering that the true heroes emerge."
"I'm afraid, grandmother. What if fatigue will annihilate me?"
"My child, you are not afraid of tiredness but of losing control of yourself. The time has come for you to give yourself to life. And to generate together with it the most wonderful children: the fruits of your soul!"
Author: Elena Bernabè
A love letter from those who have passed on…
Take the love you have for me
And radiate it outwards
Allowing it to touch and impact others
Take the memory you have of me
And use it as a source of inspiration
To live fully, meaningfully and intentionally
Take the image you have of me in your mind
And allow it to fuel you
To take action
Seize the day
And be reminded of what is most important in life
Take the care you have for me
And let it remind you
To care for yourself fully
And shower yourself with your own love
And take the pain and grief you feel
Following my loss
And alchemize it into
Love, compassion and beauty
Build a castle
From the wreckage of my passing
And allow it to unlock your greatness and potential
And empower you to become more than you ever thought you were capable of being
And know that I can never truly leave you
And will always remain beside you
Watching over you in spirit
And that the love I have for you lives on
Through the connections you form
The kindness and compassion you share
And the future relationships and friendships you cultivate.
And until we are one day reunited
I will remain with you
Through the storms and chaos of life
And am always beside you
Walking with you, laughing with you, crying with you and smiling with you
And I am proud of you for being strong
I am proud of you for being brave
And I am proud of you for being you.
Tahlia Hunter
You are a poem with breath
The wing of a dragonfly
Healing rain from the soul of existence
Calling on to the moon
To let her magic feel the heart of mother earth
Together, creating ebbs and flows
Manna from heaven falling upon lovers in ecstasy
The altar of love becoming the cradle of noble souls
Doing the sacred work
Healing
Aligning with the winds of peace
Penetrating roots crawling to crevices that hurt
Oceans overflowing with justice...
Love...
So much love
And forgiveness
Acceptance of what can't be changed
Becoming whole
Belonging with skin and bones
To the evolved human nobility of soul and self...
There is no other way
This is the way
The only way
To survive
To become
To be.
.....................
Poem by Corina Luna Dea
Archaeology for the Woman's Soul
I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight.
And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings.
You may not know where you're going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you ..
~ C. JoyBell C. ~
Artist Credit : Holly Sierra
YOU MAY BE GONE
You may be gone
but I feel you
when the cool breeze
brushes past
You may be gone
but I hear you
when the music plays
its last
You may be gone
but I know you
as a painter knows
their art
You may be gone
but I feel you
right here in
my heart
You may be gone
but your laughter
is still my
favourite sound
You may be gone
but my darling
you’re ever
all around.
Donna Ashworth
From ‘LOSS: poems to better weather the many waves of grief’
#grief #griefawareness
I call this Ukrainian New Year a tradition of celebrating using the Georgian calendar.
