There is something so awe inspiring about standing as witness to the world’s awakening. The hush, the color, the grace of it all… it’s like the earth remembering how to breathe.

There is a quiet ache flickering inside me tonight. A soft breeze makes it dance; a gust of uncertainty nearly whispers out its light.

There is a tender ache falling inside me like mist, almost imperceptible… yet I am covered just the same.

what are

the truest words

you have spoken?

the ones

that tasted
like truth

and fear

at the very same time.

did you whisper…

or shout?

i miss the way
autumn
tells its stories.

Tonight I can feel
a hundred unwritten pages
pressing gently against my being,

each one yearning for release,
yet too weighed down
to open its wings.

I hold them reverently within
until I can embrace
the quiet currents
and gift each one
to the sky.

Each leaf,

each photograph,

each word…

a small keeping of light.

Together,

they form the chest I open

when I wish to remember

how beauty feels.

This space has become

a home for wonder,

for remembering,

for belonging.

one leaf speaking autumn.

a hundred leaves answering summer.

I no longer sweep my shining pieces
into dusty corners of fear.

I no longer hide
the truth of who I am.

There is such quiet peace
in being seen by my own soul.

the day asks nothing more of me.

at last,

i can set it down.