Put your fears down on the ground

Put your fears down on the ground. 

Walk away. 

Turn around 

and look at them 

from a little way off;

maybe holding the hand of someone you love. 

Maybe you'll feel the (ghost) hand 

of your beloved grandmother, 

The one in whose eyes you could 

do no be no think no say no wrong. 

They aren't you. 

Think about that before

you decide whether to walk over and

pick them back up again. 

Consider whether 

one or two small pieces

might have melted 

into the dirt by now. 

Look up at the sky. 

Breathe. 

Even without those fears

held tight in your hands

your heart is still

beating, you are still

you.

You Are Welcome Here

You Are Welcome Here

Black, Brown, Tan, White

No matter where you were born

Female, Intersex, Male, Trans

Bi, Gay, Lesbian, Queer, Straight

Able-bodied or Disabled

Adult, Baby, Child, Elder, Teen

Agnostic, Atheist, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Other, Quaker, UU,

Conservative, Liberal, Progressive, Radical

All People Are Welcome Here

But Not All Behavior

No Hatred, Yes Love

No Name-Calling, Yes Respect

No Harassment, Yes Consent

No Unfairness, Yes Justice

No Intimidation, Yes Inclusion

No Grandstanding, Yes Listening

It’s okay to feel your feelings

You have choices

Use them KINDLY

Breath

All I have to do
is let the love flow through me
like breath when I sing.

Tangled

Knit six
purl six
sets of two rows
four rows six rows up to
twelve, patterns,
repeating, steady, soothingly same.

This is not what life is like.

Life is like picking up a
tousled hunk of yarn
pulled out of the basket
by an impatient child
looking for a string
too many times.

You find an end.
You follow the thread for a while
and sooner or later you hit a
tangle, knots and
twists and loops all mixed up
together.

Sometimes I sit there and untangle it.
Pulling little by little until I have one
piece stretched out and can go on to
the next one.

Sometimes I grab a pair of scissors and
cut.  Enough.  I only needed a little,
anyway.

But sometimes I hold the tangle
in my hand.
Amazed for a moment
at the complexity.  The mess.
I look at it and think,
this can't be solved.  It just is.

There are patterns, connections,
confusing ones,
frustrating ones,
the thread turning back on itself,
as life also does.

The tangled things will always be here,
in this moment I am living through,
right now, whatever comes after.

Even if I work through this.
Even  if I cut the cord and walk away.

Look at the tangled knot in the yarn.
Look at how it hurts.

(c) Dawn Star Sarahs-Borchelt - may be used with attribution in not-for-profit ways.