How Do I Feel?
Today I offer you a poem about transition, integration, and liberation.
Hi Friends,
Good morning! As always, thanks for taking a few minutes to read my words. I hope they reach you where they are needed. This post is dedicated to the many friends who have recently reached out to encourage my writing, but especially to my dear friend who gave me this gorgeous fountain pen engraved with my name 😊 (full disclosure, I can’t yet figure out how to work it, but that’s a good YouTube project for today.)
Until soon, XO Faith
On Sunday night I flew home from Miami, FL after four gorgeous, soulful days with the Base team, welcoming in new teammates and marking the formal end of my role as our Executive Director. While I will always be a founder and champion of this incredible work, this chapter has truly come to end. 😮
Friends and colleagues keep asking me, How do you feel?
Somehow, I have felt surprised by the question.
Perhaps there is some denial there, but mostly there are so many feelings, thoughts, memories, and impressions that it seems impossible or insufficient to try and answer the question in any succinct or articulate way. After all, building Base was so intertwined with my adulting process, my marriage, becoming a mother, finding my voice as a leader, and my relationship with God*. (*I know the word or concept of “God” is a tricky one for a lot of people. In the coming days/weeks I’m going to write more about what I mean by God… so keep an open heart and stay tuned…)
Today in an effort to show up to this writing space, I am asking myself this simple but profound question.
How do I feel?
Given that these thoughts are not yet fully formed, I am returning to poetry - the medium I most relied on as a child to process the world around me.
How Do I feel? Like a spring overflowing with water Bubbling up from the earth Propelled by falling rain pressuring the porous rocks below It is in me It is from me It flows beyond me How Do I feel? Like a child teetering on the edge of a new milestone waiting for instinct to meet will to begin new steps towards an open expanse of possibilities How Do I feel? Like a sailor standing on the edge of a ship looking back at the land I am leaving watching the horizon fade memories washing over me waiting to turn around until all i can see is open sea to begin the work of sailing forward once again How Do I feel? Like a painter watching the paint begin to dry evolving from a liquid in motion to a solid form captured in time How Do I feel? Like a bad ass boss lady who dreamed a dream and found a way to manifest it with grace and courage and an increasing sense of self How Do I feel? Like a dancer who does not yet know the steps but feels the rhythm in my bones the beat in my heart the groove in my soul