Warren, to you..

This is about someone who suffered quietly amid an entire family’s dysfunction. This is describing you who were stifled because someone else owned the whole narrative and you didn’t feel adequately supported to share yours. This is relative to a person who was not allowed to give any context, because those missing details would derail the main story being sold.
There is fear when speaking out about something that feels shameful, intimidating, or threatening. There is fear when holding it inside and not telling.
When the fear becomes less than the pain it takes to shut it out, make it go away, or reframe it so it doesn’t cause a stir, then a new moment is born. When the fear becomes less than the months, years or decades that you’ve had to hold it deep inside, then a powerful day has begun. When the fear is now less than the safety you believed you were creating by keeping a secret, then the time has come to claim your space and own the real feelings you’ve had to deny.
You are becoming fearless. You are empowered. Whether you begin being honest with yourself, finally, or if you bring them out for someone else to bear witness to your words of truth. - Susan Frybort

The black sheep is sometimes the only one telling the truth. - unknown

It takes a powerful person to cry out despite those who'd prefer the convenience of silence. It takes a fearless person to allow their sadness to come out from the tight box of cultural expectations to be expressed and processed.
And it takes a world of strength for that same person to be true to their feelings, own their emotional territory, to walk into the very chaos of its outrught messiness, and uncover the paragons of victory and joy that was held by them, for such an aching long time, so quietly within. - Susan Frybort, Open Passages

The Night before Change

How many transitions appear in one lifetime? How many events influence the next choice that will lead to another relationship inside yourself—or create a pathway to the unexpected? What if the Unforeseen ushers in an intense challenge or breakdown in a long-standing connection, or awakens a deep-rooted truth you never clearly saw before now? And what if your response to this unforeseeable moment ended in a decision to move to an unfamiliar place or live a healthier lifestyle, or draw on a fresh way of perceiving the life you already inhabit? How many roles will you act out, how many solitary moments will determine the next answer, and how many skins will you shed to get to another phase beyond your comfort zone—or past this prevailing mode of being?

Just like the waves making up an entire fluctuating sea, as unpredictable as they are inevitable, we have no choice but to go through transformation. These What Ifs are happening all the time to everyone, everywhere through subtle changes and abrupt shifts. Unsettled or planted, change is ever-present. Ubiquitous. Sometimes a big change might have felt overwhelming, as though the formerly current stage was shoving you out of a personally comfortable, familiar threshold and into the open seas of the unknown.

It's not always easy to envision connections as sequences, or see turning points as useful signposts, or forks in the road as universal options with no wrong or right answer, merely differing routes that will offer an opportunity to expand and grow as we’re being led by some mystery into a forward moving motion.

I wish you all the encouragement and care you will need to keep going. I wish you always well. May you see the Former Way of Being as a guide anointing you with approval and confidence. May you recognize the truest course to set your pace. May you find sanctuary in the joy of fond memories, kindred spirits and future blessings. May you welcome the hidden beauty within transition, and may you always know your path, whichever way you choose, will ultimately lead you Home. - Susan Frybort


The Night before Change

As your dreams pace restlessly
between wake and sleep,
it is the eve of transformation.
Old identities no longer fit.
Transition calls out in the night.
You sit on the hinge
ready to swing into change,
trembling, nto knowing the outcome.

Courage stands by on this threshold,
when you are ready to begin
completely and finally.
Courage remains as you bloom into life,
then step over into a bold new reality. - Susan Frybort

When you didn’t have enough care, you tend to accept the crumbs of casual attention. When you didn’t have enough of the right people nurturing your growth and encouraging you to try, you may have looked to ungrounded people to create and exalt into idealized figures. When you didn’t have real love and healthy boundaries to help you feel safe, you made poor choices which led you towards settling for less or made decisions which ushered you into hazardous places. When you didn’t have reliability, consistency, and a foundation built on living with truth, you missed the red flags of dishonesty that were planted knee-deep in terrains requiring authenticity.

When you didn’t have secure parental bonds or an early life of stability lined with trust, and then later in life you noticed these red flags, you likely believed they were subject to change or would eventually disappear or even transform into banners of integrity. You thought they could shift and switch their color and fly happily ever after, these red flags flown by those who fear intimacy; these flags hoisted by those with their own trauma issues, too; flags which represent the lack of the very same things you needed to recognize your individual worth.

These red flags waving somewhere in the distance, then blatantly raised were warning you not to come any closer. And these flags they held were flaring red yet overlooked early on are now firmly staked into the ground you share, and somehow have become a declaration of their unwillingness to commit to a clear and honest connection.
When you didn’t have what you needed to advise and offer guidance, you might feel like you’re on your own at learning how to avoid harmful, dangerous or toxic dynamics. Red flags show up almost right away, and because you became inured to tolerating less than what’s right for you — all the strength, confidence, and understanding that’s crucial to heed them couldn’t be applied. But just because you didn’t notice any ominous signs back then, it doesn’t mean you’ve made a pledge to put up and remain in imbalanced friendships, ill-behaved relationships, half-love marriages, disjointed partnerships, broken-boundaried family systems, or pernicious, demeaning situations.

When you didn’t have enough of the goodness you needed, you tend to feel like you’re not enough. Not enough to pursue what’s kind to you. Not enough to wait and see and take your time and hold out for what’s best for you, instead you run the risk of roaming far away from what you should have.

Rippling like signals in the wind, flags are red for everyone to see the threat ahead. And if it feels like its too late, it’s really not. It’s not too late to take whatever room you need to repair the rips and readjust the way you view and esteem your one and only heart, and use the space to practice and communicate the many sound, prioritizing ways you should be respected, loved and cared for. - Susan Frybort

Know you shoudl be loved.
You should be held safe and warm
inside an invested and caring heart.
You should walk away from
destructive and depleting forces
and walk alongside calming streams
Knwo your diginity is deserving
of the loving places you belong.

Know that you matter
and should be loved. - Susan Frybort, Open Passages

B L O S S O M

You waited for it.
You waited for him and you waited for her to make up their minds to deliver.
You waited for the moment to show up and relieve you from holding everything upon your shoulders.
Now it's all up to you, because waiting for someone else to make it happen for you is not likely.
Sometimes when we no longer want to believe in something we can really have, we stop looking for it and instead create a zone of comfort where we soothe the loss of what we were never given or never took the risk to find out for ourselves.
To hinder your own potential or prevent your expansion and personal growth by remaining in a self-imposed hide-out of limitations and compression is like never planting beautiful flowers because you're uncertain about the possibility of seeing them flourish.
You are worth taking the necessary risk of becoming actualized and blossoming.
You’re worth doing it for yourself. - Susan Frybort, Open Passages

THERE IS MORE FOR YOU

There is more for you
than what never showed up.
More than what never came to be.
More than what couldn’t transpire
or find a way to work out,
and it looks like healing
and shaped like possibility.
Let down by family or parents,
past dreams and expectations.
Put off by relationships,
romances, careers and ideations.
There’s another path to explore
and alternate routes to travel.
There’s a tribe meant to welcome,
with encouragements to fuel you.
There are hearts that want to hold you,
and kindnesses that long to see you through.
There are other ways to meet with love,
as kinships waiting in the wings.
There are fresh fields to run in
and warm pools to swim.
Hold on bright child,
there is more than
what never appeared...- Susan Frybort, Open Passages

With set my day and my morning with loving energy .

I have to believe we were not born to spend portions of our life condemned to a state of limbo, forgotten by our deepest dreams, deprived of joy or the sensations gifted by nature. Even if I've experienced situations that have yet to provide me with satisfying answers—or come together in any way that makes sense to me—I must allow myself to be uplifted by each season. Whatever you're going through, even while some things still feel raw and confusing inside, know you are loved and life invites you to step outside and be refreshed. Be inspired. Let your pulse race free with the morning’s faithful light… - Susan Fybort

I'm stepping out from wooded shadows and into the bright arrival of a fresh day. Beyond the forest, rugged trees give way to a clearing as I walk beside new possibilities. Along the path, I gather tattered pieces from seasons past to place with care upon the mantke. And to my surprise what I discover, resting nestled and preserved, are scattered dreams now recollected, their colors vibrantly reminding amid the slender pines. Entwined with twigs and fallen needles, I find childhood dreams that have lost thie way, i uncover wild dreams yet unbroken, and dreams that used to keep me up at night, still restless and alive. Now is the time I pick them up, dust them off and let them breathe into a winder opening. Let their pulse race free with promise. Let them blend with each morning's faithful light. - Susan Fybort

"When our mind is racing and noisy, outward calm is only a pretense. But when we can find space and calm inside, then without effort we radiate peace and joy. We are able to help others and create a more healing environment around us, without uttering a single word." - Thich Nhat Hanh, ”Silence - The Power of Quiet in a World full of Noise”

In these turbulent times, sometimes I step beyond my limits and collapse inside old worries. It’s then I know I need to take a moment of solitude and wrap myself in stillness and care. I also need to be held in love outside myself and nestle into presence. I need to hear it will somehow be alright after being absorbed by such uncertainty. I need to touch the heart of hope and feel I’m not alone… What abut you? Whether it’s because of grief, fatigue, fear or loneliness, or from being stretched too far—all the brokenness you feel like you’ve become can be placed inside the arms of grace.

Grace can be a simple calming place that doesn’t ask any more of you than everything already has. It doesn’t require anything other than the condition you find yourself in and wants to grant you more. More patience. More assurance, more rest and acceptance. More reprieve and peace, more comfort and serenity.

Somewhere in this strident world is a quiet space that wants to hold you safe and warm. -Susan Frybort

When at the end of this day, if all you feel you canc offer the world is a handful of brokenness, give it.
Then in return, let the world hold you in its grace as you sleep tonight. - Susnn Frybot, Open Passages

Hallucinations of the soul

The longing for things that you could not have,
the yearning for places you were not destined to arrive.
Wistful memories of what was not ever meant to be.
Regret for not being who you thought you would become.
These hallucinations of the osul are agnoizing prisoners
that must be pardoned and released.

Clear the room.
Open the door and let them leave.
And in this space, you'll pain a glorious existence
of being here with presence and contentment
for what truly is a relevant and meaningful life. - Susan Frybort

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them, that only creates sorrow. Let reality by reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. - Lao Tzu

Your life is your home here on earth. And if your foundation became cracked and certain pieces fell and broke apart,
your heart still finds a way to follow the primal urge we all share—a desire to touch the center of our wholeness and experience a deep sense of belonging in a vast and rugged world.
I see the light of your one and only beautiful home shining in the darkened hours of my struggle. I see your challenge to keep going on the worst of days, and so I cast my light out into the all-embracing open skies.
I hear the song of your soul breaking through the night to claim the morning. You belong here with me and I with you, because together we reflect the traits and yearnings of being human.
We'll keep the lights on, you and I. We'll be beacons for anyone searching for a place to meet and warmly be received... - Susan Frybort

You are soul
and you have a right to shine
in all those places
you long to venture.
To be witnesses.
to be heard,
to confess
and be seen.
YOu belong
Carve out your shinning moon
and palce it high among the stars
to gleam forever. - Susan Frybort

What if one day....

What if one day you come to the realization that you never again have to explain yourself away to anyone anymore, or that you no longer must carry the burden of another's false perception of you or your own perceived inadequacies and you could relax, finally, in knowing you're incrediable in the light you are standing in at this moment. And what if you go on to not care about the judgements someone else might have - that you rlife is not full of amazing enough, or that you no longer feed the need to endlessly apologize for being human?
That day has been graciously waiting for you to begin swimming in its warm waters of loveand acceptance. - Susan Frybort, Open Passages

What has happened has already happened. There is no going back. Although you can’t travel in reverse to pinpoint the exact beginning and do it all differently, you are neither bound to walk the same old beaten tracks.
And you don’t have to exhaust yourself in the efforts of making a painful comeback. You don’t need to search frantically for just the right setting to emerge anew.
For there is an opening that separates you from what was and what will be. It is an offering given to you by each present moment, called Now.
Now is when and where the inception of your authentic awakening can begin. Now is where your confused and frightened self can rise to walk with measured strides. Now is when you can take a step up higher in your thinking as you’re opening to seeing your surroundings with a much clearer and deepening lens. You can do better now.
Because Now is the genesis of your transformation, the apex where all the truthful places in you shine brighter than ever before and continue to expand within you even more...
Starting Right Now. - Susan Frybot

Let them go,
all the leaves
once green regrets,
now sweet and rusted
wings of wisdom
floating on the
winds of reason.
Sweep them up
and craft a pile
shining with
imagination--
toss the sparks
into the air and
watch them
glow...

Healing is a long-term practice...

Healing isn't a short term process. It's a long term practice. Because it's not just about healing the wound itself. It's also about retrieving what has been lost, integrating new parts, maturing in the places that the trauma obstructed. It's about developing into the truest version of yourself possible, after years of buired below the weight of adaptation and disguise. It's about catching up to yourself, after years on the run. Healing is a long term practice. - Jeff Brown

When a person finally feels safe enough to talk about their trauma openly- or even speak admissions privately to themselves- a bold and powerful moment is born. And in the midst of these initial breaths are the tender, courageous steps towards healing. Opening typically comes organically in nature, yet I have seen it rushed before its time. I have seen unseasonable temperatures press the fragile bud to break too early. When the air gently warms the supple heart, it will open in its own way. The heart knows when it feels safe and warm enough to unfurl. - Susan Frybort, Open Passages

It takes a powerful person to cry out, despite those who'd prefer the convenience of silence. It takes a fearless person to allow their sadness to come out from the tight box of cultural expectations to be expressed and processed. And it takes a world of strength for that same person to be true to their feelings, own their emotional territory, to walk into the very chaos of its outright messiness, and uncover the paragons of victgory and joy that were held by them, for such an aching long time, so quietly within. - Susan Frybort

When a person finally feels safe enough to talk about their trauma openly- or even speak admissions privately to themselves- a bold and powerful moment is born. And in the midst of these initial breaths are the tender, courageous steps towards healing. Opening typically comes organically in nature, yet I have seen it rushed before its time. I have seen unseasonable temperatures press the fragile bud to break too early. When the air gently warms the supple heart, it will open in its own way. The heart knows when it feels safe and warm enough to unfurl. - Susan Frybort, Open Passages: Doors and Windows to the Soul

It takes a powerful person to cry out, despite those who'd prefere the convenience of silence. It takes a fearless person to allow their sadness to come out from the tight box of cultural expectations to be expressed and processed. And it takes a world of strength for that same person to be true to their feelings, own their emotional territory, to walk into the very chaos of its outright messiness, and uncover the paragons of victory and joy that were held by them, for such an aching long time, so quietyly within. - Susan Frybort

They say beauty comes from a spirit that has weathered many hardships in life and somehow continues with resilience. Grace can be found in a soul who ages softly, even amid the tempest.

I think the loveliest by far is the one whose gentle heart bears a hundred scars from caring, yet still finds a way to pick up the lamp, one more time, to light the way for love. - Susuan Frybort, Open Passages

When a person finally feels safe enough to talk about their trauma openly- or even speak admissions privately to themselves- a bold and powerful moment is born. And in the midst of these initial breaths are the tender, courageous steps towards healing.
Opening typically comes organically in nature, yet I have seen it rushed before its time. I have seen unseasonable temperatures press the fragile bud to break too early. When the air gently warms the supple heart, it will open in its own way. The heart knows when it feels safe and warm enough to unfurl. - Susan Frybort , Open Passages

It takes a powerful person to cry out, despite those who'd prefer the convenience of silience. It takes a fearless person to allow their sadness to come out from the tight box of cultural expectations to be expressed and processed. And it taks a world of strength for that same person to be true to their feelings, own their emotional territory, to walk into the very chaos of its outright messiness, and uncover the paragons of victory and joy that were held by them, for such an aching long time, so quietly within. - Susan Frybort