Once you realise you can do hard things.
Once you fought the fight to make love real.
Once you had the courage to live and love your story.
Once you took on the monsters, regardless of the outcome.
When Everything you ever deserved and
Everything you ever lived for
Started to feel real.
Once you overcame the hard things,
Once you followed the painful inner path,
Once you befriended your shadow, that once haunted you.
Once you dug in so deep your feet sunk in clay,
Once you clung on when it felt stone and grey
Believed, beyond dreaming possibilities.
Once you learned to breathe
Once you did this for you
Once you saw what happened to you
Once you loved your story of you
Once you loved you, in your story
Once you exposed the truth
Once you stood
Once you became more than
Expectations, roles, conditions.
Once you became
Everything you ever lived for
Everything your heart made true
Once you can do hard things,
Then all of this can become true.
Once you start to do hard things
Everything feels possible.
Once you do hard things
The world starts to see
Powerful, Real, Beautiful
You.
Once you do hard things
You can do (almost) anything.
(Card sent to me from a beautiful friend as I began this process)
James Ballantyne 