Sometimes the greatest gift is no gift at all. Sometimes being denied something is a push towards something better. There’s a reason the treasure waits at the end of the rainbow and not the beginning. Finding it must be a journey. It takes trust and hope and a bit of grit. You have to take […]
Author: Cristen Writes
Showers to Flowers
Finally, after so many years of neglect, that wounded little girl that I tried so hard to leave behind walked back out into the world with me. I dried her tears and took her hand and stood witness as she showed me all the things that once held her back. It was a beautiful process, […]
Quiet Storm
Maybe the reason I kept my mouth shut for so long was that I knew I’d scare people and maybe even myself with what would come out. Such strange and beautiful and consequential things want to slip from this tongue. Mysterious things with terrifying depth and long lasting reverberations. Maybe I stayed so quiet because […]
Happily Ever After
It took a long time for her to understand. It took a long time to let go of her ideas and rules and plans so the truth could finally settle in. This is life. This is it. It’s not somewhere up ahead, a goal to press towards with degrees or achievements or measurable conquests. It’s […]
Continue On
Continue on. And just when you start to turn the page on the wounds of the past, just when you start to feel the budding excitement of something you’ve never known, a conditioned voice in your head will tell you to look back. Continue on. It will whisper, “But what about him? What about her? […]
Lost
Sometimes I just have to disappear. I don’t mean ethereally, like in meditation or by consuming art, though I need that regularly too. I mean physically disappear. Sometimes I need to lose myself so completely that I’m lost to others as well. I have to shut off my phone, forget the world, and lose my […]
One with the Night
I tend to be most alive in the day. I’m in love with the greens of the trees and I’m energized by the sun. I crave the sound of singing birds and the feel of sun-warmed skin. But when times get hard – when I’m tired, overburdened, or worn down – that’s when I become […]
The Misfits
I’ve never really fit into any group that well. Maybe that’s part unhealed trauma, part innate oddness, and part superpower. My seat has always been with the misfits. That’s where I belong. With the loners and the rebels, the broken and awkward and divergent ones. With the people who couldn’t fit the box if they […]
Destinations
You see, it was never about arriving. It has always been about the journey. It’s about how many times you fall into a hole and you dig your way back out of it. Wiser. Stronger. Lighter. Brighter. You’re never going to reach some final destination, because it’s always been right here. Here, in the midst […]
Speak
I won’t tell you to be positive.I won’t make you feel like you need to hide.I won’t change the subjectwhen you start to share what’s hidden inside.I won’t try to fix youlike you’re some sort of broken machine.I will look without agendaat the truths you wish to be seen.I’ve been there myself;I’ve felt that pain […]
Hello Darkness
grounds are shakingwalls are caving in;exposing each fear,every anger and sin.every step I’ve taken,all I have beenchaos is brewing;the ice is too thin.alone in my headwords start to shake.releasing the pain,I let the ice break.cold water pullingit’s so hard to breathe.wounds I was hidingthey finally bleed.I’ve been here before.I know where to go.so journey I […]
I See You
No longer do I need to go somewhere remote and alone to find you. I find you here. Within me. Surrounding me. The breath before my breath. The sight before my sight. I find you in the innermost parts of me, waiting patiently for my mind to see. No longer must I gaze upon a […]