You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. And you don’t believe that sentence until you do. Once upon a time I thought that my partial attention and long distance prayers meant caring. I didn’t live there after all, in those countries where people were hungry, or scared, where children found themselves alone without […]
Category: Blog
One Taste
Why go searching for a piece of flint when you can just snap your fingers and light the hearth? That’s where I landed as it relates to dating and romance. I know I am no trailblazer here, and in hindsight I’m surprised it took me this long. But now that I’m finally here, I understand […]
Trending
things that won’t make the news today: the low-growing thrush covered in clusters of flowers, the lavender-spiked grasses, overlooking like towers things that had nothing at all to say: the wind that teased at the water’s surface for hours and the soft, cool clattering of this afternoon’s showers things that didn’t alert or trend: zebra-striped […]
Times Have Changed
For years, they’ve held us back. Pushed us down. Stolen our voices. Our power. They. The false dilemmas. The dualities. The accepted belief that we must be one or the other. The narrative that screams ‘you cannot be both’. For generations we’ve accepted the idea that we must choose one or the other. We must […]
No more
No more working harder. No more carrying heavier. No more chasing the carrot on a stick. No more accepting every armload of expectations and rules and responsibilities that they hand me in the subconscious hope for some meager scraps of validation. No more living like my purpose is to become resilient and my happiness must […]
Rebuilding
I’m rebuilding. But this time it’s different. This time I’m building a home within me first. I’ve already tore down the framework, pulled up the floorboards, and thrown out the trash. But this time I’m not looking outside myself for anything to start again. I’m not asking anything of anyone but myself. This time I’m […]
Lost
Sometimes, after some inner growth, I feel as if I’ve found my way back. I’m struck by the sense that I was lost, and I’m only realizing it now that I’ve returned. I suppose it feels as if I was lost because each new level feels so familiar. And by contrast, the places I started […]
A Message
A message for my neurodivergent friends out there: Just paying attention is a practice in resiliency right now. If you are busy processing the onslaught of information, checking facts, finding your center, making plans – if you’re so busy that you don’t yet have the words, or haven’t yet found your method, you are not […]
From the mud
It gets easier. What was once a battle will someday be a simple decision. Straightforward, firm, sure. No tumultuous struggle between what if and what was and what is. No questioning and second guessing. Because each of yesterday’s battles leaves a mark. And while some might call them scars, really they are wisdom marks. Beautiful […]
Human
It’s strange being a human. Caught in this place between instinct and deliberation. Between the construct of society and the truth of the wild. Between the physical and the spiritual. I imagine being a bird or an elephant would be so easy, but maybe because I’m not bird nor elephant – rather I’m something with […]
Just Turn
It’s easy to go either way. You turn left or you turn right. You start to lose touch with yourself, listen to the noise, let the rules and the dramas become so real that they gain weight, and it pulls you down. Or you say no to the call of foreign voices that have nothing […]
Home is where the heart is
I sat beneath an oak tree once. It was a beautiful, strong tree with roots so large that they ruptured the surface and provided the perfect little nook where I could sit with my book. I didn’t read that day, though. Instead I spent that time marveling at that tree and letting my mind wander […]
cristenwrites.com 