"KINDNESS" by Becky Hemsley

"KINDNESS"
by Becky Hemsley

 “But it made you strong!”

How often we are tempted to say this to someone when they’ve been through a difficult time.

And it may well be the case.

But chances are that they are feeling anything but strong. They are likely feeling

exhausted

shattered

weak.

And they need someone who recognises that. Someone who - for just a while - can be the strong one for them. Can offer them a shoulder to cry on and an arm to support them.

Yes, when they feel like that, they need to rest.

They need to recharge, recoup and regain the strength they’re being told they have inside of them.

Because what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. But it sometimes very nearly kills us -

exhausts us

shatters us

weakens us.

They didn’t want to have to be strong.

They wanted life to be kinder.

And as it wasn’t, it might help them more than we realise

If we bring the kindness instead.

******

Becky Hemsley 2023

https://www.facebook.com/talkingtothewild

Beautiful artwork by Irene Izib

‘Kindness’ is from 'Letters from Life' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHL9MZC1...

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"DAYDREAMING"

"DAYDREAMING"
(author unknown)

"When you are young, you wait for the world to save you. You wait for that sorry note from your Mother, and a romance of a lifetime from that guy you had a crush on for the last 3 weeks. You think that a Europe trip would ease your worries away, and a 'miss you' text from that one person who you think about everyday but still don't talk to will help you live a little better. You are alive in your head more than this miserable physical world. You think that you are never going to be fine and maybe this is the best that you can have. But when you grow older, everything changes. You realize that grand gestures and other people do not save you, mundane things in your everyday life do.

You do not daydream of trips to soothe your mind anymore. Instead, you stand in front of the balcony and look at the glowing orange moon while sipping your cold coffee and somehow it makes you feel a little less lonely. It's as if the moon can look back at you and listen to all the rambles of your heart. You make a playlist for almost everything from cooking in the kitchen to finishing the last episode of your new favourite show. It's like a time capsule that you revisit all the time just to remember how you've lived your life. You buy fifty books in the fare, even the ones you have already read. You romanticize freshly cut green grass, and a cold cup of water, and a blue sky full of clouds, and the way trees dance with the storm, and that small lane in your neighbourhood with magnolia and dogwood trees that looks like a scene from an 80's French movie. You collect cups, bowls and socks and wonder how weird it must look to love them. You come home tired and lay on your sofa but the way your home smells makes you feel like you belong somewhere. You realize that intimacy isn't just physical or romantic. You feel it when someone comes to your room for the first time and looks at all your stuff and you find yourself telling them backstories, or when you tell someone a story about your childhood and they look at you like they understand you a little more and give you the warmest smile. You watch that movie for the 30th time and eat ice cream and solve puzzles when you feel lonely instead of texting and stalking someone who is not good for your mental health. You catch sunsets every evening because you love the way they remind you that there's a new day ahead, and you like listening to the rustle of the leaves on a gloomy day. You live for your plants and your pets and the little pigeon in your balcony who coos every now and then. You appreciate home cooked meals more, and clean clothes and the way fixing your kitchen does you better than a motivational podcast. And sometimes you pause just to notice your breath and the slow rise and fall of your chest and it makes you glad that you are here. Loving these mundane things have taught you more about beauty than a couple of heartbreak poems. You find that you have stopped giving in to unnecessary stress and you live your life by your intentions and not your habits. You empty your pockets and let go of all the things that are too heavy for you to carry. And when someone offers you their half-hearted love, you smile and refuse because it took you a long time to love yourself and now that you finally know your worth, you have realised the way you deserve to be loved. After all, you have understood that finding yourself is closer to finding love. When you look back, you know that there is no need to stay in the past anymore. And instead of waiting for the world to save you, you finally learn to save yourself....."

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"I'M FINE" by Becky Hemsley

"I'M FINE"
by Becky Hemsley

Today I said “I’m fine”, not once

But five times altogether

When people asked “how are you?”

Then made small talk of the weather

And so I hid behind my mask

The one I’d worn a while

I set in place my bravest face

And dressed it with a smile

And that was how the day went

All “I’m fine” and talk of rain

Until somebody asked me how I was

Then asked again

They asked if I was truly fine

And I said I was not

And they said they were sorry

That they couldn’t do a lot

But then they sat beside me

Whilst I spoke the truth at last

They listened and they held me

As the tears slipped through my mask

And where before, I’d felt I should

Maintain this brave façade,

I realised there was much to gain

By letting down my guard

See, though my load was still the same

It now was not as heavy

‘Cause sitting and offloading it

Had helped a bit already

Today they asked “how are you?”

And I told them I was fine

‘Til someone saw behind the mask

And asked me one more time

And though they may have felt

That there was little they could do

They’ll never know how much it meant

To tell someone the truth

*******

Becky Hemsley 2022

https://www.facebook.com/talkingtothewild

Gorgeous artwork by Gustav Klimt

“I’m fine” is from my second collection, What the wild Replied.

Brought to you by https://thecorner4women.com together with our sister website http://www.nicheebookcollections.com and our growing e-book library available FREE, through our Newsletter sign up page here:-

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"A NEW CHAPTER" by Becky Hemsley

"A NEW CHAPTER"
by Becky Hemsley

She asked him how he’d done it

How he’d built marshmallow towns

How he’d met a little poor boy

Who was destined for the crown

She asked him how he knew about

The language fairies speak

And how he’d caught a shooting star

That now was his to keep

She asked him how he’d swum

Right to the bottom of the sea

And how he’d seen a mountain cry

And heard the sunshine speak

She found it all a mystery

He breathed the air she breathed

But he breathed out tales of distant lands

And things she’d never seen

And she saw a world of wonder

When she looked up close at him

And when he spoke his words flowed

Like a poem on the wind

He told her that it hadn’t been

Some wings that helped him fly

And it hadn’t been a net he’d used

To catch things from the sky

It wasn’t maps that led him

To a chest of buried gold

And it hadn’t been a ship

That sailed him halfway round the world

It wasn’t bricks he’d used

To build a castle in the sky

For he told her he had lived

All of these things inside his mind

And he told her she could do it too

For reading’s all it took

And she’d open up her world

If she just opened up a book

******

Becky Hemsley 2021

https://www.facebook.com/talkingtothewild

Fabulous artwork by Katy Betz

'A New Chapter' is from my first collection:

https://a.co/d/4cOFvD5a

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"SANDS OF TIME" by Ann Marie

"SANDS OF TIME"
by Ann Marie

In the shifting sands of time we stand,

Hands once clasped, now grains in the land,

You were my sun, my endless day,

But fate's cruel winds blew you away.

Through the desert of life, I wander alone,

Your laughter echoes, now a distant tone.

Yet in the night, when stars align,

I feel your warmth, your hand in mine.

The hourglass spills, with every grain,

A memory of love, a whisper of pain.

But as the sands slip through my grasp,

I hold to hope with one last gasp.

For in the end, when time is done,

When moon and stars eclipse the sun,

We'll meet again, beyond this shore,

In a place where time can touch no more.

In that world, where love is free,

The sands of time will set us free,

And hand in hand, we'll walk once more,

Together as we were before.

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"THE POWER OF ONE" by Becky Hemsley

"THE POWER OF ONE"
by Becky Hemsley

One leaf can disrupt a whole army of ants

And can leave them all scared and confused

And it takes just one word, even one from a stranger

To render our self-esteem bruised

It takes just one flick of a switch in a light room

To promptly turn everything black

And it only takes one hand to push us too far

Just one straw to break our camel’s back

It takes just a moment when all is aligned

For the sunshine to blot out the moon

And it takes just one foot to kick us whilst we’re down

Just one sprinkle of salt in the wound

And yet when we think of ourselves as the one

Then we think we’ve no power at all

That we won’t make a difference when this world’s so big

And we feel so incredibly small

But it takes just one leaf to announce spring is coming

One seed for a flower to grow

And it takes just one hand to stop someone from falling

Which might mean far more than you know

It takes just a word to make somebody’s day

Just one switch to turn dark into light

And it takes just one foot to stand up for someone,

Just one sunrise to soften the night

So harness the power of one for yourself

It’s a power you’ve held all along

Yes, I know that you think you can’t change the whole world

But you can change the world for someone

******

Becky Hemsley 2022

https://www.facebook.com/talkingtothewild

Gorgeous artwork by Lisbeth Cheever-Gessaman at She Who Is

'The Power of One' is from the book What the Wild Replied

https://a.co/d/dyQRzqb

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