A poem for when you’re feeling the need for renewal… ✨
All things old
Born new again
Revealing the lightness
Which is her home
Her safe harbor
In a sea of lost souls
©Ashley Castle Barnes ~ Cat Lady Poet
Feeling the weight of the past? What if you embraced the lightness of a new beginning? 🌱 🌈
She’s peeling back the layers
Piled on across lifetimes
Within a life
Constructed to protect
And keep her safe yet subdued
Her full potential
Her impact
Blocked
This unraveling
Her greatest shift yet
©Ashley Castle Barnes
What if she doesn’t need to worry
Or to wrap herself
In a blanket of disjointed thoughts
Pulsing with anticipation
In order to feel safe?
What if she could free herself
Of this gift
That has long since run its course?
©Ashley Castle Barnes
Fears of her own inner knowing
Hold her back
And she feels a new wind blowing
Not knowing doesn’t feel safe
Yet —
And she moves with the wind anyway
Trying as she might
To hold tight
And not blow away
©Ashley Castle Barnes
If she strips away the layers
Will she be able
To walk through the fire
Unburned and unburied
From the constraints
Of living under the weight
Of the thoughts
That kept her safe?
©Ashley Castle Barnes
This beautiful thing often happens after we do the inner work.
We feel lighter. More free. Perhaps a bit impervious to the fires that once felt life-threatening.
But getting there can feel like walking directly into the fire.
It’s why we hesitate, we question.
What if I do this? What if I don’t?
I’ve yet to get to the other side and have regrets.
But I continuously question when I get to the edge again – do I really have to do this?
Of course, I don’t. I can stay right where I’m at.
But experience has proven that’s not the best choice.
Stepping off the edge and dancing with the fire is the only answer (for me) that will get me to the other side.
I’m still gonna ask the questions.
And then (eventually) I’m going to leap.
What inner work are you leaping into today?
The stirring of her great adventures
Ricochets
Against the voices in her head
Telling her to be safe
And make good choices,
As if the safe choices
Are always the best choices
For her free spirit
To soar
©Ashley Castle Barnes
I have teenagers and every time they go out the door I remind them to “be safe and make good choices.”
But even as I necessarily say that, I’m reminded that while I want safety and good choices for them, I also want them to try things and take some risks.
I want them to make mistakes and learn from them.
I want them to be realistic but also not to be afraid to live and to soar and to seek out adventures.
And I realize that there’s a fine balance between aiming to keep someone safe and inadvertently encouraging them not to try life.
Especially when they’re young.
I think about how much of my life has been filled with safe and appropriate choices.
I’ve had a great life so far, but also I wish I’d taken more risks and had more adventures.
Of course it’s better late than never!
What risks are you taking today?
When all things seem
To spin out of control
And the popcorn thoughts
Bouncing in her brain
Won’t let her rest
She holds onto the knowing
That she doesn’t need
To be in control
To feel safe
Or loved
Or whole
©Ashley Castle Barnes
We all need something to ground us.
An object. A visual. A feeling. A thought.
Something that will bring us back to earth when the inevitable worries threaten to spin us out into orbit.
I do have a selenite heart stone nearby, that I grab quite frequently when I’m feeling scattered.
I have pets around me constantly. Just their presence is grounding.
And my favorite visualization is the ocean or water. I have my desk strategically positioned so I can look out my window and see the sun sparkling on my pool. It’s not “natural” but it’s soothing.
But sometimes, I have to consciously bring myself back to a thought that I know is true, even if in that moment it doesn’t feel so true.
I know I’m prone to try to control my environment when tasks pile up and my thoughts threaten to take over.
I know controlling my environment or thoughts doesn’t work, it usually makes things worse.
I know this from experience.
And even though my being wants to go there out of habit, I have to choose to gently bring myself back to earth.
To remind myself that I am safe, I am whole, I am loved, even when things feel like they’re spinning out of control.
And then things have a way of calming down on their own.
How are you releasing control and staying grounded today?
All these years spent sleeping
In the safety of her cave
Her energy too much
For a world hell bent on normal
What will happen
When she’s unleashed
©Ashley Castle Barnes
Working with women, I’m seeing this energy rising.
And it’s not simply a pandemic trend.
The energy of women playing it safe and small is dissolving, while the energy of women re-engaging with the inner girl who was told she was too much or not enough or some other bullsh*t is expanding.
The world isn’t shifting to allow this for women.
Women are demanding this for themselves.
We are creating the energy shift.
We are healing the too much/not enough wound.
We are defying “normal”.
Individually and collectively.
And as women do this work, bridges are created for others to feel safe(r) to do the same.
Are you feeling the shift? And what will happen when you, too, are unleashed?
And then there were none
And her heart won over
The trust it had sought
For lifetimes
Her knowing that she is safe
In her body
In her mind
Letting go
Letting go
The only way to flow
©Ashley Barnes
And then there were none…
How many times have we been told to stop making excuses? And what if the excuses we’re making can’t be changed by simply changing our behavior – or even our thoughts?
Then we beat ourselves up for making excuses about why we can’t change and we still can’t seem to find a better way.
What if it’s not always about excuses? What if it’s deeper than that?
Feeling unsafe is not an excuse. It’s a survival instinct.
Feeling out of place in a world that creates specific boxes for “how to be” is not an excuse. It’s a valid reason why so many of us don’t see a path to success.
Feeling like we can’t trust ourselves or the environment around us is not an excuse if we’ve been shown time and again these things can’t be trusted.
What if we let go of excuses and accepted our feelings just as they are? What then would be able to flow?
And what if she just flies away
Will her words follow
Will her thoughts mellow
Will her pain bury itself
Into the holes she’s dug
Until she’s safe
Or is safe just another word
For lonely
©Ashley Barnes
Cat Lady Poet 