One day
I want the glass bottle once thrown into the ocean with a message inside
To Float back to the shores it was flung from and discovered that the wreckage is no longer
That the parts have been salvaged and repurposed
that there were a pair of footprints facing north
that made it far pass the point of being washed back into the sea
Towards something beyond the wilderness
And the bottle rests between the cusps of the waves never being disturbed
How sweet and simple. I can feel the energy you are trying to convey. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of our unsealed family. <3 Lauren
There’s something special in me, but the sheets around me invite me to lie still.
There’s something special in me, but the voice of the newest drama calls
out my name.
There’s something special in me, but the hours of scrolling make it easier to stay put, liking, commenting, and laughing my precious time away.
As 2024 dawns, I aim to awaken the thing that is special in me.
But not by any unimaginable might nor by any unprecedented event.
The path to results is simpler than I realize. More obtainable than the maze my mind has painted, full of winding paths, convoluted plans, and unforgiving puzzles.
The steps are as follows:
Record the vlog.
Write the story.
Create the choreography.
Master the language.
Learn the instrument.
Love and be loved.
This is the moment I start to create the things I have always wanted to make,
I start to enjoy the things that make my creative spirit sing,
I start to find my rhythm.
I start to find my tempo.
Do not delay, I say. The thing that is special in me grows restless.
And I cannot ignore it any longer.
Aww Victoria, I love this piece. I hope you have started living your dream life and fully stepping into your best self. This is a great poem to read over and over again to yourself. You are giving yourself the courage you need to unseal your greatness. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of The Unsealed family. <3 Lauren
Wow Wow Wow! This is an amazing piece. I love the ending. It is really one of those mic-drop endings. I really think this year will be the year you find your way but just by reading this I have a feeling you’re already on your way to wherever you want to go in life. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for being such a special part of our Unsealed…read more
I will do love better next time
Starting with me
I will love me better
Wake up in this body
Speak prayer over it
And remember that God
Ordained me worthy
Anointed me with special purpose
Not sacrifice
I will smile wide and full
No longer biting my tongue to keep my truth from falling out
I will love me better
Discontinuing to be confused on my value
Or of what I bring to the table
When I am the home that love is held in
I will lay flowers at my feet
So that the ground is blessed twice
By something sweet
I will love me better
Pour all my effort into my dreams
Instead of into the hands of another
I will love me better
Hold myself gently
when I feel calloused by my own thoughts
when my mind is spiraling with aspects of my ego
I will remind myself that this is path of being human
I will offer myself compassion
when everyone around me has run out of it
I will cup my hands
and whisper kindness into my palms
And place them on my heart until I feel warm again
I will make sure my cup overflows
Make sure to ask no one to fill it
I will be my own mind reader and interpreter
Trusting in myself and not needing someone to invalidate the doubt in me
I will love myself better
By leaving sticky notes of encouragement on my mirrors
When I feel like I’m slipping
I will grasp whichever limb I need
to keep myself from falling
And even if I fall
I will know that loving myself
means to get back up
And I will get back up
I will make mistakes
But I will love myself enough to learn from them
I will love myself better
To love a lover better
To give and accept love
For love’s sake
I will love myself better
Because there’s no greater love than the love of oneself
Dear Self,
You are the love of my life.
This is powerful and beautiful. There is nothing more magical in this world than the love we hold for ourselves. The more we love ourselves the more we can truly be ourselves and live our purpose. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of The Unsealed family. <3 Lauren
Dear self, you are the love of my life! I will
Cusp my hands and whisper kindness 😍😍. I love those lines. It means everything. You’re showing how gentle you will be with yourself. Sometimes we are so hard on ourselves and it’s unnecessary. Great poem!
Dear Me,
You did the work
You trusted the process
Look, I know you, you’re going to move on to the next thing, to finish that next task but might I suggest your goal is to be present in what you’ve achieved?
You live in a house of your own
So feel at home
You’re feeling a lightness like never before
Step into that freedom
You learned things do work out in the most beautifully unexpected ways
Keep believing
Aww Chris — Short but so very sweet. I love this part “but might I suggest your goal is to be present in what you’ve achieved?”
Being present is something I struggle with. I am always moving to the next thing. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of our family. <3 Lauren
Hi Lauren. Thank you for your thoughtful reply, it’s so exciting to have someone reading my work! And thank you for creating this space for us to create.
This year I choose no
Placating niceties
Diet plans
Burn, burn, count calories
Ignore your purpose and call it “eating right”
Shrink shrink shrink till your body
I mean your voice is so small
You must go to one to find it again
I chose no
Good girl cinderella
It’s-safer-if-I-let-him-think-he-saved-me
Good wife housekeeper, cook, event planner
Yes-I’m-happy-when-I-believe-my-value-is-based-on-how-I-serve-others
This year I choose
Real over nice
Ice Cream dripping down my chin
Chocolate from another’s tongue
Melt me on your lips
Expand expand expand arch, cry out YES
Till my presence, I mean voice, is so big
There is no room for fear or pounds or calories
I am worth the weight, the space, the time
And the best thing I ever shed was every voice that ever said
Be-nice-good-girl-don’t-cry-you’re-pretty
No. I choose storm.
I choose rain and electricity
And cry and jump in the puddles
Because I am not made of sugar
And I will let you make me the villian in your story
If it means being the hero in my own
Sew your red envy into a gown
That makes men kneel
And pity the cages you built around yourself
This year I choose no.
I mean me. I mean knowing myself.
Eat the fries. Travel, orgasm, take a lover
Say-the-brave-thing-be-the-wild-thing
We were never born to weight
To be saved or rescued or paid for
Never born to lose and lose and lose and lose
Ourselves
No.
We were born to remember
What it feels like to live
Muddy toes, the bubbles in champagne
Lipstick and and well placed expletives
The smell or orange peels and your own laughter
Yes.
This year I choose no.
My name is Chrys Takashige and I am sending my poem for your January writing contest. Thank you for taking the time to consider my entry,
Take care…Chrys
My Ascension
The year to
rise and shine.
“So long” to what was.
“Hello” to what is.
Still thriving.
Thankful to be sustained
by technology and humans
two decades plus.
Time to live more freely.
No cerebral road blocks,
nor abandoning of self.
Marching forward
to where euphoric states await,
in the ocean, on the greens, up on the hills.
Returning to acts of love,
from hermit to butterfly,
out and about it shall be.
The dormant right brain
to be awakened
on paper, with rhythms and cuisine.
Moving and grooving
through each day.
Attaining yin-yang status
on the see-saw of life.
The freedom to choose
what is ideal
for the life deserved.
No more compromising.
Forget wasting energy.
Drop the ungrateful.
Evolve into a light-weight
ready to fly and soar
beyond measure.
Aww Chrys! This is a lovely poem. Go fly, go soar, and live your happiest life. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of The Unsealed family. <3 Lauren
Mahalo, Lauren! I am having a great year so far and it is a plus to have been exposed to and accepted into your writing community. I am feeling so blessed!
So when they ask me about my 2024
This is what I wrote
I set some goals
& I could easily tell you now
but my goals aren’t for everyone to know
I would rather show you how
I rather create my master plan—
have a talk upstairs w my old man
Jot them down—
remember how
The struggle is real
but God is Realer
How—plans are a guide
But usually never—fully set in stone
Sometimes you’ll go straight ahead—
sometimes you detour
Stay on your toes—
& ready for redirection
Cause the time will come—
when plans ain’t steady
Sometimes they go south
Sometimes they’ll go North
But don’t you worry—just hold tight
& don’t let go
Keep in mind—
there is more than one way—you can go
Just hand him the wheel—let him steer
& put your blinders on—
so you can see clear
Listen up & listen close
Be careful with all that—outside noise
Sometimes his voice can be real quite
So I do my best—to quite my surroundings
Cause—
How I’m suppose to hear him talking—
while listening to—“Yo Gotti”
God be tryna reach out to me—
after me asking him to guide me
But then—
I go straight into hiding
Hiding behind memes & streams—
that contradict what he believes
Catch what I’m saying?
I’m sorry Lord—I’m trying
I know you know best—
where I am—where I’m headed
& what needs—be left—behind me
Like that one time—
I had that vision of a business
But it didn’t make it
Named it—Vision Reality
I was so hopeful & determined
I held on to the idea—for some time
Tryna not—let go of it
I paid a lot of money out of pocket
Until I couldn’t pay—no more of it
Spent months & months—working on it
Alot of frustrating late nights—
that felt like wasted time
But no time is ever wasted—
if you chose to learn—from all the unexpected lessons
I know more now—then I did back then
& perhaps that—one failed attempt
will help me—perfect the next
……………………………….
Vision reality — Pt 3. ✨✨✨
Love Note Back To You 💙
……………………………….
So when I think about 2024
& my goals I have set forth—
I write them down & plan ahead
Always keeping in mind—Remembering
I’m never fully in charge—
I’ve never been
I always wanna be in control
& I know it’s time—I learn to let go
Let go—of my so called “Master Plans”
Lay them down into—the Real Masters Hands
Let him help me quite all the noise
Take my lil social media breaks—as needed
so I can fully hear his voice
Focus on my own goals & life—
not just sit back-chillin—
watching y’all live yours
Live my life for me
Remembering—
Not everything in life—
needs to be shared
Not everyone—
needs to know everything
W so many distractions—
It can be easy to be sucked into the madness
To forget—our own goals & visions
So I take breaks—when I start to feel low or stagnant
& I revisit
Revisit my goals & pray on em’
Cause soon as I get comfortable—
i’m uncomfortable again
knowin I should—be working on the next one
So I ask him to help me—shut the world out again
& all it’s nonsense
To give me back my tunnel vision
& let me get a lil glimpse of him
To not let this world stain my lenses
cause I hate to become blind
& a prisoner of my own mind
& rob myself—of my own blessings
But when everything around me’s—
fake news
When everything is wrong—
that I once thought to be true
All this & more—can really weigh on me
& I can’t lie—it can really get depressing
So I ask my God—
for some love notes—here & there
To let me get a glimpse of heaven—
util I myself—can finally get there
So for 2024—
there’s so much—that I plan to do
Most of all—I just want to become—
less of me & more of you
I really love to brag about your love for us
Cause I wish the world knew—it’s true
But vise versa—I could never brag about MY love for you
I know I fail you—every day
Real quick tho—I just wanna say
Thank you—Lord
For your provision & my daily bread
For the day you told me
Just hold on—you won’t regret it
Trust me—I got it
Cause even though it sometimes hurts—
I’ll take it
Your writing always is so heartfelt, authentic, and powerful. Keep trusting in God, but more importantly, keep trusting in yourself. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of The Unsealed family. <3 Lauren
I don’t have resolutions and despite popular belief
I really don’t know what I’m doing
(especially going into this next year.)
Instead, I know more about who I am not
& I know what I will not do.
I will not wait.
for anyone or anything to like me
I have no desire to be likable to the people who see as debatable
I want to be loved fully and completely
I want to know that I am worth the fight
worth the discomfort
And worth the effort to try to get it right this time.
I will not linger.
on the pain or ambiguity.
part of the awakening / is the awareness /
that everything works out as it should.
there’s nothing I can do
there’s nothing you can do
there’s nothing anyone can do
to keep me from what’s mine and
anything ‘lost’ in the middle is merely practice
to lay my own impatience to rest.
“as I think, so I shall be.”
so I let go, consciously
knowing that I will be okay with the energy of the cosmos leading the way.
I will not be afraid.
I used to believe that fear was a super power capable enough of making me
smarter, sharper, faster,
but I clung to that too much
holding onto that belief until fear crippled me.
// I’m not doing that anymore //
living with fear at the forefront
has made me lose more than its ever made me gain.
last night, I drove to pahrump
alone at midnight.
it was pitch black out
nothing but mountains for miles and a thousands threats of danger lined both sides of the roadway.
But I kept driving
I kept going
and I prevailed by repeating that “I am not afraid”
// A new mantra when I start to lose my way. //
I will not doubt myself.
my sacral authority has been strengthened by
18,976 minutes of meditations.
my intuition is more than capable
of interpreting the signs
the numbers
and the meaning
of everything around me.
This is the power of woman
and all I need to do is listen.
I will not define myself by insanity.
I will not repeat the same patterns
and the same behaviors in hopes
of different outcomes.
there is an ebb and flow to everything / the yin and the yang /
perfect pairs that present truths
that I keep persuading myself as wrong.
“Maybe if I try harder, this time it’ll be different”.
“Maybe this time, they do just need space”
Maybe this. Maybe that.
But maybe not.
These are not chances that I am willing to take as I gamble my life away.
I will not stay silent.
I will not say yes when I mean no
I will not sit by and watch atrocities unfold
when I have a voice.
My boundaries
My emotions
My thoughts
My peace
are all inherently valid and will not be ignored.
This year
I don’t have resolutions
and I have no clue what I’m doing
but instead I have this simple equation
where I subtracting the distractions
add in new wisdom
multiply the joy
and diving the things I love
to find the real value.
to find the real me
the who already has everything
she needs because she understands her power
and know it lives inside her.
“I will not stay silent.
I will not say yes when I mean no
I will not sit by and watch atrocities unfold
when I have a voice.
My boundaries
My emotions
My thoughts
My peace
are all inherently valid and will not be ignored.”
I also love the ending! This is such a wise, strong, and creative-written…read more
As a collective, there is so much happening on a global and interpersonal level that I think we are all doing ourselves a DISSERVICE by shying away from the hard conversations and shying away from our authentic selves. And part of that authenticity is owning the messiness of the journey.
It’s the halfway point of January. Though I’ve been taking it a bit slow, I still have plans that I want to achieve in 2024.
I’ll tell you what they are…in verse
As 2024 rolls on
Here’s what I know…
I hope to expand on my writing gains
With the fourth attempt to bring the next chapter of the Poetic Journey to life
To complete the Tupelo Press 30/30 challenge
Go the distance through NaPoWriMo once again
And possibly, write my next chapter
To make it past my probationary period in February
Seeing in my first anniversary at work full-time come October
Come the fall, my next destination beckons
As I trade the Aegean for the Adriatic
With visions of being by the sea in Dubrovnik
This is just a taste of the plans in store
Knowing that the rest of this year is open for so much more
Oswald, I always love your poems, as they always have a positive and uplifted tone. And I love hearing about your love for travel. I can’t wait for you to achieve all your goals and uncover what else this year has to offer you. Thank you for being you and sharing your heart and your art with our unsealed family. <3 Lauren
The troublesome foe—
everything you can become.
The future is anticipated,
but it has yet begun
the past is important
learn from it and grow
focus on yourself
and everything will follow
opportunity will arrive
when you least expect it
Pick up where you left off
Even when you forfeit
It can’t be expedited—
it’s written in the cards.
All you have to do,
is be who you truly are.
This piece is so wonderful. I love the message and the ending “All you have to do,
is be who you truly are.” It’s simple advice but they way you put this together is so impactful. Thank you for sharing. <3 Lauren
This time
I am
Clawing my way
Out of
The grave
I laid in
The grave
I prayed in
Waiting
For a change
An extracating hand
With a shovel
To come
And dig
Looking for me
Somehow
Knowing I was
In there
The dirt
Never lifted
No matter
How many
Times
I shifted
I would scream
Sometimes
I would even
Sing
Nobody came
I decided
I would
Die in
Darkness
Blind to the power
I could harness
Then I realized
I was awake
Nowhere near
Death
I may have
Felt defeated
But I still
Had some
Strength left
My hands began
To move freely
My legs too
I was never
Stuck
I just accepted
Too many lies
As my truth
Leaving me
Confused
The years
Before
Were heavy
Filled with turmoil
This year is
Brand new
I am no
Longer
Beneath the soil
Grayson, this is powerful! I am glad this year you feel more empowered and ready to rise above. Keep pushing forward. Great things are ahead. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of The Unsealed family. <3 Lauren
Lauren, thank you so very much for taking the time to read and respond to my piece. I look forward to the next steps and I’m happy to be apart of the movement 😊 happy new year!
Dear me,
Yes you,
You are a capable woman. Strong, intelligent, and resilient is your name. You put fires out that are aimlessly burning, and in the same breath have the ability to ignite the most powerful flames.
You are a capable woman. A dog mom, a cheerful wife, and a spiritual pillar to many. You work hard in everything you do even when it’s not ideal.
You are a capable woman. Allow yourself the time you need – to heal, to laugh, to cry, and to sigh. Life will always be busy, but you deserve some rest. Remember, you are capable but you are also human.
Oh, capable woman. Please dive into yourself. Make your 30s your best. Let go of the void and shake off the excess stress. Who are we mentally, physically, emotionally & spiritually? Let’s find that out. Can we buy out the time to do what we love? Can we live by our rules?
My dear capable woman. This time is yours to spend. Follow your heart and find peace within. Build up yourself the way you desire to be. I believe you can do it. I believe in me.
Ashley! I love this piece. As I was reading it it felt as though it was written for me. It was what I needed to here (even though I am well in to my 30’s). I loved this line, “Oh, capable woman. Please dive into yourself. Make your 30s your best. Let go of the void and shake off the excess stress.” Thank you for sharing this piece and thank you…read more
Thanks Lauren! I think no matter what age we are, we can always benefit from a reminder like that one. I’m so happy you found personal comfort in this piece. Thanks for giving so many of us the space to be ourselves 🥰🥰
I am thrilled to take charge of my life this year! 2024 will be the year of self-love, self-care, and self-growth. To pour into others, I must first pour into myself. So, this year, I will prioritize my needs and honor every part of who I am.
I know that the journey of self-love is challenging, but I am ready to face it head-on. I am determined to become the best version of myself mentally, physically, and spiritually. I acknowledge that there may be bumps along the way, but I will not let them discourage me. Instead, I will use them to show myself how strong I am.
2024 will be a year of transformation, and I can’t wait to see all my progress. I am confident that with hard work and dedication, I will achieve my goals and become the best version of myself.
Aww Camerial, It is clear that this piece was written by a person filled with confidence and a sense of empowerment. I love it. I too believe you will achieve all your goals and be at your best. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being part of The Unsealed family. <3 Lauren