Tag: path

Daily Bliss – September 28

A poem for when you’re feeling lost…✨

What if the path she treads
is not something she can forge
with bare and calloused feet alone,
but rather from the tremulous yet essential steps
she takes in her mind?

What if the rotten and worthy debris
she must clear to make her way forward
doesn’t fall from any tree whose furrowed bark
she holds in outstretched hands,
but rather from the dense and daring forest inside?

What if the path she sees before her isn’t real,
disappearing like a mirage shimmering in the desert,
crumbling like sand between her trembling fingers,
until it’s created by her world within?

©Ashley Castle Barnes ~ Cat Lady Poet

The path to our dreams begins with the connection to our inner world. ✨

September 28, 2023

inner world, inside, journey, path, steps, within
Daily Bliss – August 30

A poem for when you’re feeling brave enough to create your own destiny… ✨

What if there is no “right” path

Only the path she chooses

And willingly walks

Savoring the scenery

Pursuing the peaks

Cultivating the canyons

Watchful and waiting

Until her next crossroads appears

-Daily Bliss

August 30, 2023

choose your way, crossroads, journey, path
Daily Bliss – June 15

From the corner of her eye

Grazing in the distance against the tree line

She spies life

So close she can almost reach

Just a stone’s throw away

Each stone thrown creating the path

Upon which she treads

Creating her future

©Ashley Castle Barnes

June 15, 2023

create, creating, future, life, path
Daily Bliss – April 11

She tries to imagine

Her way out 

Her mind heavy with visions 

Of peace, love, radical acceptance 

But she knows

As she treads along the path

That one sacred foot in front of the other

Is the only way through 

©Ashley Castle Barnes

April 11, 2023

acceptance, dream, Imagine, love, path, peace, vision
Daily Bliss – December 29

What if the most formidable way

Is the one path forward?

What if the elusive path,

The most obscure,

The path with fear and strangeness

Hanging like vines,

Has always been the one?

©Ashley Castle Barnes

Being the end of the year, I’m reflecting like many of us do.

Reflecting not only on the last year, but across the last several. A decade, really.

Noticing what keeps returning to the surface of my awareness.

What keeps whispering to me, “Go this way.”

And what I’ve been ignoring or avoiding.

What directions I’ve shunned for seemingly easier, more obvious choices.

For the low-hanging fruit.

Which sometimes turns out to be the easiest to pluck but the hardest to eat.

Perhaps there’s something sweeter, more succulent in the fruit picked along the road less traveled?

What are you reflecting on today?

December 29, 2022

fear, path, reflection, strange
Daily Bliss – December 27

Her hope,

Carried on wings

Delicately fluttering

Through winds of purpose

And determination,

Taking flight

To rise and soar,

Dip and dream

©Ashley Castle Barnes

What is it about hope that it often feels so fleeting?

When in reality, it’s more like a butterfly – delicate yet strong and fluttering, but with purpose and intent.

If we can’t seem to catch it, it’s because hope isn’t meant to be caught, but rather to enjoy the journey it takes.

Following its whimsical path keeps us inspired and dreaming- and never bored.

And oh – when we finally touch it – its glowing light in the darkness allows us to soar!

And then we begin again.

How are you engaging with hope today?

December 27, 2022

butterfly, determination, dream, flight, hope, path, purpose, rise, soar, wings
Daily Bliss – November 29

What will it take

To put down her stake

And claim

All that is calling her?

©Ashley Castle Barnes

Just because something feels like a calling, doesn’t mean it’s ours. Not until we claim it – root it into our bodies and embed it into our soul.

For those of us who thrive on flexibility and variety, this can be tough. Staking a claim can feel fixed and permanent.

And yet, I have to believe it can be done with the openness that getting there can look different ways. And those ways can evolve and change over time.

They should evolve and change, otherwise we do risk becoming fixed and permanent.

And then we no longer have a calling, just a thing we’re holding onto tightly.

The balance is in finding the in-between.

What are you claiming today?

November 29, 2022

calling, claim, path, stake
Daily Bliss – September 13

All this time

And still she finds herself

From time to time retreating,

Finding refuge in avoidance

Rather than the firmness

Of ground beneath her feet

Or the softness of skin

Holding her together

©Ashley Castle Barnes

No matter how much personal work I do, I find myself at times reverting back to old patterns.

Patterns that although I’ve learned ways are still etched in my way of being.

A smooth and well-worn path to follow.

And that’s what makes personal work so challenging. The smooth and well-worn path feels simpler. Safer. Comforting.

Etching those new paths into permanent existence is difficult. Painful. Harrowing at times.

And it takes time.

I don’t beat myself up anymore when I find myself on an old and well-worn path.

I acknowledge it, honor it, embrace the reminder that the desire for ease is human. It’s necessary.

And sometimes to find true ease, we have to forge a path through the hard stuff first.

What path are you forging today?

September 13, 2022

avoidance, ease, grounding, healing, path
Daily Bliss – August 24

She celebrates

The little things

The insignificant

Yet powerful

Little things

That mark her path

And give her courage

For the big things

Today marks 7 years with my current employer.

It’s the longest I’ve ever been in one place.

Ever, in my entire 30+ years of working.

Prior to my current career, the longest I’d lasted anywhere was 2 years.

I’m not a job hopper. But I am “multipotential”: my interests and passions span multiple topics and fields.

I’ve done non-profit fund development, cat rescue and adoption, corporate event planning, contract staffing, and now learning and development (not necessarily in that order).

One of my most favorite jobs ever was working at the local drive-in theater the summer after I graduated from high school. It wasn’t a glamorous or particularly fulfilling job, but I loved the people I worked with.

And of course, I now also write poetry, publish books, and teach women leaders Reiki.

I’ve felt pressure over the years to pick one thing and do it well. My career didn’t actually start until I was over 30, so I’m technically behind by some standards.

But I have to say that each one of these experiences has been a stepping stone on my path to what I’m doing now, and what I will do in the future.

I’ve gained skills, met a wide range of people, and most importantly, learned a ton about myself – which has all informed the work I do now.

Seemingly little things that have built into bigger things.

And more on the horizon.

What little things are you celebrating today?

August 24, 2022

big things, courage, little things, path, small things
Daily Bliss – August 12

What is it about coming home

That ignites both excitement

And sadness,

Her dream of finding herself

Out in the world

Always leading her back

To the space inside,

Always present,

Always welcoming,

And yet she wanders still

©Ashley Castle Barnes

It feels like all the work I’ve done over the last decade is for the inevitable purpose of coming back home to myself, to the me that has been lost, hidden, masked.

But it’s more than that too. It’s the journey, the experience.

I keep setting out, looking for something unseen but felt inside, then circling back to a place that feels closer to home than before.

I always come back to the place inside where I’m home, I’m whole, I have the comfort of knowing I have the answers within.

And then I set out again.

A cycle of beginning and ending but there really is no end.

At least, I hope I never reach a place where the learning and growing ends.

I think that would be death, even if I were still alive.

I used to not love the wandering. It felt directionless and untethered.

Because it was. It still is.

And that’s okay. Learning to trust my inner compass has been my journey, and while it’s been rocky, it hasn’t led me astray.

It is the way.

What is your way, your journey of coming home?

August 12, 2022

home, inside, intuition, journey, liminal, path, trust, wander