Within the comfort of her fortitude, she exist
Unraveling the anguish, peeling back each layer
Her journey beckons solitude
Wildly growing amid a field of watchful eyes
To plunder each morsel of growth
Alone, she is unstoppable
Nurtured by light, tended by Hamsa
Winds whisper their knowledge, she exist
Her seclusion brings in clover
But, deeply rooted she withstands
At the seat of the soul, she knows
She exist

The original poem was all but two sentences from 2017 – ‘there within the comfort of her fortitude, she exist – wildly growing amid a field of watchful eyes’. Expanding on this poem a bit more made me realize that a lot of my growth has been through understanding my inner turmoil both positive and negative. I hesitate to use the word pain because not all of it has been “painful”. In fact, had a really wonderful upbringing and childhood for the most part. The mental anguish I feel is just navigating the human experience. I truly love that more people are talking about mental awareness but some of the mental we are not talking about are the experiences that shaped us. The positive experiences more specifically. The backwards thought here in much of our mainstream culture is that we think in order to grow we have had to struggle through shit. We don’t. Merely existing and being within our bodies, we grow. Understanding our feelings and emotions can be turbulent enough – basically what I am trying to say is sometimes retreating to your own space and simply existing within your own environment often will bring about the most rewarding growth. Albeit aloneness is an experience in and of itself, trust that it reaps the best results.