<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><div class="default-style" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><font color="#020202">A Soft Place to Fall</font></span></div><div class="default-style" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><font color="#020202"><br></font></span></div><div class="default-style" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="default-style"><font color="#020202"><i><br></i></font></div><div><font color="#020202"><i>“Universal compassion starts at home, by extending an olive branch of mercy between you and yourself.” Elizabeth Gilbert</i></font></div><div><font color="#020202"><i><br></i></font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">We all get weary. Every one of us breaks down.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Stiff upper lip drops you off by the side of the road.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">With nowhere to go, no one to turn to.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Seeking a safe place to hide, abide. To bleed, to weep, to toss pots and pans.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Cultivating kindness begins with me.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">And ends there, too.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">But the opposite was taught and we learned it well.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">We scolded ourselves for our mistakes, berating our tender hearts for failing to fill expectations that tore at our sensibilities.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">We pretended our wounds were of no consequence, that we had no right to take up your time with our complaints.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">To be seen and not heard was the first tool in our survival kit.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">To find another way, we had to unlearn <em>everything.</em></font></div><div class="default-style"><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">About who we were. And what we had come here to do.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Untwisting the crippled strands, extricating ourselves from a dense, brutish web. Closing forever, the pages of a faltering rulebook.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Simply to make it out of there, alive.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">We separated dross from the true.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Embraced the unthinkable.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Stretching our arms to meet a freedom that we did not recognize was within us.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Gathering strength.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Remembering our dreams, of the ancient, healing ways, innate to our bones.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">We sowed Light seeds into the damaged furrows of our own wake.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Dabbled salve on our battered senses, healing the bruises of lifetimes without compassion. Tending our wounds, decorating our hair with flowers.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">A safe place to fall, soft cushion for the old hurts to drop away.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">We gorged on ripe berries with clotted cream, wore wide-brimmed hats and let our ponytails grow long.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">We were blessed, we knew ourselves to be.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Spiral-danced in the moonlight and tended the soil at sunrise.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">Rode ponies through the fields and sang our beloved Gaia back to health.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">‘Til she awakened from an interminable sleep, an eons-long dark winter.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">A soft place to rise up again. And reclaim life.</font></div><div><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div><font color="#020202">This is the tale our children will tell, and their children, and their children’s children, for generations to come.</font></div><div class="default-style"><font color="#020202"><br></font></div><div class="default-style"><font color="#020202"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Dawn-Dyanna Dhyanna</font></div></div></div></body></html>