it might bring fear
—living your life in the light

how everything is suddenly visible
to any breathing body
that chooses to give your life
some attention

don’t be afraid

the light shows you everything
—all the knots and tangles, the dead ends where things just stopped breathing

pay attention

but also, it calls to your eyes
with its tender light-voice, cupping your face so gently
in its hands

yield, let things be

if you tell your eyes where to go, they will follow all the ways
in which you have always
been held together

mistakes? failures?

with my quiet eyes i see only
traces of a brave life
how it wanders across the clearings, always searching
for connection

even in the shallows, even in the deep

if that isn’t courage, then i don’t know what is.

© Liezel Graham 2023

{📷 beauty unfolding on my work table}

on this very blustery afternoon i am being taught how to lean into life, being reminded to ‘not be afraid’ — of the dark, yes, but mostly to not be afraid of the light, how it uncovers and lays bare, and leaves only two choices at my feet:

do i hide from it, or do i stand within my own life, honouring my own inner landscape, choosing myself over and over.

this is what it is to allow the light within—a choosing of myself, over and over.

the freedom of this is indescribable.

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