The Story Is Your Journey, and the Compass to Your Soul. {poetry}
Don’t try to catch her wild heart, run with it to set yours free.
She’ll unravel, she’ll come undone,
All her layers will become leaves,
All her limbs will become trees,
Flesh and bones sinking into bed-sheets full of sand.
Ask the wind how to hold her and he will tell you to give into her madness,
the only way out is in, for he has passed over her flesh and bones and stirred dust storms in her heart,
blown her words to the bees to make honey.
She lives where her edges begin along the uneven contours of her vulnerability fringe,
where her light meets her dark hidden in constellations etched on her skin.
She lives where the sun sets and the sun rises,
where night and day meet,
connected to something much more important than herself, the passing of a moment.
She dips her toes into the hot water of her soul to see the stars.
She lives where the wild things dwell in the severe brutality of the ocean that she folds up and slips between the ragged and torn pages of well-read books.
She rides the aftershock in search for answers
wondering where from Alliston to Africa she might find a world worth waiting for.
Balancing on cobblestones, fantasizing in castles,
swimming in bioluminescent under the Southern Cross,
kissing under bridges, driving over rivers, witnessing the silence of elephant steps,
licking saltwater tears through glass windows where the oceans meet.
Moments that words cannot explain.
Her corners have lovers and her lovers have corners.
She knows how little can be controlled
and she has never been happier than while caught in a lion’s gaze reflecting the freckles in her eyes,
much more than a snapshot of what’s happening on the surface.
You cannot quiet a roar,
she has something to say, listen to her murmurs in a sea of secrets.
She sways in the wind with the wildflowers of the Kalahari.
She looks too long for things never found:
Dust in a river, tears in the rain, snow in Costa Rica
Throw bricks at her and she will build a house,
she will not be tempted by every trap you set.
She exists in a paradox, a philosopher’s madness or a revelation of love and chaos.
Wake her up slowly,
Let her empty her pockets full of shells,
so she can come up for air and live in the sun as it rises up over the land,
filling her silence with light.
She is the calm behind the wheel, wondering what exactly is next,
trusting only that the next town will come,
some town between what she has survived and who she is becoming.
Somewhere in it a new story will unfold, just as they have before, soundtrack and all,
and unfold like the blanket of self-love that warms her by the roadside next to a broken-down engine,
unfold like the pages of passion which spin out of this story to become the journey, the compass to her soul.
***
Penny Light is a Life Adventure Expert, who has traveled most of the world, including living in a tent in the middle of the African bush for a year and documenting a pride of lions. She hosts personal growth retreats — both private and group — in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and does elite 1 on 1 coaching/mentoring. Penny believes that life is one great big adventure, even more so when we say Yes and show up to it honestly and courageously. Adventure travel has always been the primary means of her continuous search for a better self. She believes that stepping out of our comfort zones and going on adventures raises our tolerance for uncertainty. Placing ourselves in situations where things don’t always go as planned, such as on an adventure trip, helps us learn to cope with the uncertainties in life, of which there is no shortage. Penny’s aspiration is to bring to others what travel has brought to her — a new way of seeing not just the world, but ourselves as we exist on this planet, to learn the always inevitable lessons, that letting go is a necessity for survival, longevity and health, and of course, the beautiful connections made in human kindness along the way.
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