We have been fighting for our lives for a long time.

Years. Months. Decades.

My god, we’ve fought bravely—beautifully, elegantly.

But we can’t fight forever, can we?

Maybe it is only through the sweet, simple act of surrendering—of fully settling into who we are—that we can finally find the peace we forgot we were searching for.

Maybe it’s time for a real change. The winds are gently blowing us now in a new direction, aren’t they?

But first, let’s celebrate…

Because yes, we are warriors, through and though, down to the badass bone.

We are not cute, compliant kittens. We are not polite, predictable chapters in glossy books that everyone says you just have to read.

We are roarin’ lions and fantastic tigers. We are never-ending phoenix stories. We are growling, exquisite enigmas of the deepest branches of imagination that lead to milky way constellations of dripping prose, goddamn painful breakthroughs and adventures so crazy—they just have to be real.

Courage is tattooed on our hearts like a rose, tucked inside us like a wild secret. A f*cking powerful secret, that’s for sure.

We are warriors, baby—warriors of stardust, unyielding seekers of soul, ultimate believers in the fantastic beauty of heart.

Our lives haven’t been easy-peasy polaroids of pleasing perfection. They have been hard—terrible, at times, even. We are no strangers to suffering. We know abuse. Brokenness. Pain. Grief. Betrayal. Loss. Failure. Depression. Panic. Anxiety.

But we know—we’ve always known—that life was tough, so we could have an epic opportunity to transform—so we could dig deep enough to find the pulsating, juicy spot inside—the tender jeweled fire of our fiercest potential.

And we found it.

We have fallen hard in order to rise further. We have seen the crackling fires of hell in order to build a lush, heavenly landscape in our hearts.

We have been bruised, buried, cracked, broken, utterly fractured and completely picked apart—so we could know what it is to heal.

We’ve never stopped fighting.

When everyone else in the world seems to sail along smoothly—in a sea of success, whipped cream and melodious laughter—our tears became our best friends. Our resilience became our fiercest ally, our most compelling reason to continue.

We kept going.

We never gave up, even though there were a thousand shattering moments when we started to believe all the people who bullied us into thinking we were too weird, too intense, too emotional, too wild, too raw, too passionate, too gut-wrenchingly truth-dripping real.

They told us to get jobs at banks and work boring 9 to 5 jobs filled with nothing but white walls, soul-sucking vacuous misery and false illusions of what it means to truly succeed.

They told us to be quiet. They told us to stop questioning everything.

We got louder.

We became bolder.

We kept going…

We kept diving deeper and deeper into our hearts, into the salty core of our sobbing tears, until the thinly disguised veil of delusion popped, and our truth, like honey, came pouring out—a sacred sea we’ve been waiting lifetimes to taste.

And it tasted so sweet.

And we kept going.

We kept going because we couldn’t not listen to that whisper inside us—the subtle, but unforgettable cosmic song of soul that gave birth to who we really are.

We kept going. We never stopped fighting passionately, fiercely, protectively—

For a life more extraordinary and less full of empty bullsh*t. For more than the flattened-out, half-assed, two-dimensional, polite, accommodating caricatures we were expected to be. We never stopped fighting for the dripping wax seal of spirit. For the volcanic lava of truth—for love.

We never stopped fighting—but now, after years of epic wars, bloody battles, endless rivers of sweaty tears and broken peace treaties…

We are being asked to set our swords down.

We don’t need to fight so hard anymore.

We have arrived.

We can just be.

We can expand and grow now, from a softer place. We can blossom, just as beautifully, but with more gentleness. Oodles more intention.

We know who we are, we have tasted the sweetness of our truth, our birthright, our purpose—and it’s time now to slip delicately into our destiny, rather than struggle madly or rail against the fiery friction of any perceived obstacles.

There are no obstacles anymore.

It’s time to set our swords down—and breathe.

And enjoy the ripe, luscious fruits of everything we fought so hard for.

We can use the ferocity of our fighting spirit in a different way now. We can channel that intense energy creatively—to paint more beauty in the world. More poetry. More joy. We can share the dripping art, love, and wild, wickedly awesome words our hearts and souls are calling us to create. We can proudly give voice to the issues that no one ever wants to talk about. We can inspire. Heal. Spread truth like tender wildfire.

We are safe.

We do not need to declare war every second of every day anymore, for there are no battles left to wage.

It is time now, to settle into ourselves—to slide seamlessly into our souls, like the softest, most exquisite silk.

It is time to breathe.

And set our suffering down—and know what it is to be free.

To be light. To be laughter. To be joy.

Oh yes—

To stand up so proudly

In our own light

And be.

And that’s what it is—isn’t it?

This. This wild simplicity of being—this is what we were after all along.

Life doesn’t have to be so hard. It doesn’t need to be brutal, gut-wrenching and exhausting at every moment.

It can be so beautiful. It can be peaceful.

Reach out and gently grab ahold of this brand new chapter—this golden, empty page that smells of hope and honeysuckle and even sweeter, more awe-inspiring, soul-igniting adventures than ever before…

Stardust warrior, your courage is palpable. It pulsates out from the molten core of the earth in every word you speak.

You don’t need to try so hard anymore.

Soften.

Allow.

Take gentle care of yourself…

Because your magical, tender heart is your greatest asset—but you already know that, don’t you?

Feed her, every day.

Feed heart.

Ignite soul.

Dance joyously in all of who you are without even the slightest apology—

It is time now, to enjoy the freedom you fought so hard for.

.

Author: Sarah Harvey

Editor: Yoli Ramazzina

Photo: Flickr/saigerowe