Feel.

My friend Kimberly over at @lacelit hosted a guided writing retreat over Zoom last night. Prior to the retreat starting, I reread a text from a sweet friend who was kind enough to send me the most encouraging words. I was thinking about the time I had the honor to walk her through some hard days. I started thinking about the number of women in my life who have let me speak into dark moments. It’s not something I take lightly. And I have been lucky beyond belief to have them walking beside me in my own midnight reminding me to believe for myself what I believed for them. ✨ Kimberly’s prompts made me think back through their stories, and this is what I had written at the end of the session. As always, never finished, but with enough air its lungs to breathe it out into the world.

Have you ever felt
So deeply
Betrayal

A shade of black
Banishing all semblance Of living to
Its shadow pits
Filling it with whatever
Crumbs of a sacrifice
The empty could offer

Have you ever felt
So fully
Emptiness

A vacancy of meaning
Hallowing all rhythm Of dreaming into
Hopeless nights
Downing it with whatever
Sip of a vision
Betrayal left behind

But in this sacrifice
In this vision
I hope you feel
So deep and so full
And when the banishing
And Hallowing can Betray no more
I hope you feel.

-A