Happy Thanksgiving

I am grateful for my own fucking self

For being my own warrior

For protecting each wound I posses with zeal

For waking up each morning – some days with a strong purpose

And on others, with none – but not letting that stop me from being me

Going out there and being unabashedly myself in unabridged color

I’ve realized how much of myself I lose when I love

Giving away the power of being validated by another

The deep quest of being understood and of being seen as a whole,

I’m not a wandering arrow, I am a manicured missile

- I shudder

Even when I am not able to protect a sheltered wound,

I am the one who patiently combs through my tinniest of issues

In the densest of jungles

And thus, when I am grateful

First I will be for me.