this is what it looks like…

this is what it looks like when you let yourself die.

death came when I called,

and into open arms I offered myself.

you know, true devotion has no exceptions.

I learned,

when you work with death, be wise.

hold reverence in place of fear,

be humble to the invincible power,

and rejoice together in the beauty of truth.

every woman, rivering moonblood between her legs, knows death.

every lung, ebbing the exhale, dances with death just as breath.

every day, the sun taunts us with goodbye, and we dream of lives beyond this one, sleeping in the uncanny palm of death.

attuning to the cycles of life at all scales, including the ones in our bodies, psyches, and souls,

we learn, if we are open,

that death is neither the adversary nor malevolent by nature.

death itself,

in all its fearsome glory

is integrally here, right now.

just as present in this moment as that which we so affectionately call life.

one in the same in fact.

you know this, but it bears repeating.

death has become a societal taboo that imbues a paradoxical fear of living in those who have not felt the electric bone liquifying presence of honest grief and genuine praise.

feeling and welcoming all,

wholeheartedly,

this is what it looks like when you let yourself live.