spiraling, soaring
I want to share two poems with you today:
Spiraling
By Chelsea Frisbee - October 2019
Going inward, I strip away
all strands of self
clinging desperately to anything familiar and safe.
I let go, again and again
until, quiet and alone
I hold the flickering flame of my soul
in the palm of my hand.
Alone but not alone.
Alive, connected to every other living thing
breathing tree, grounding rock, rolling ocean.
From that moment of stillness at center
I move outward again
spiraling toward expansion, newness
connection, freedom.
-
Soar
By Chelsea Johnson - May 2025
Like a raven,
I steer by tail
with Love at the helm
taking over, taking in
all that is within and beyond me.
I stretch out my wings
and soar.
The second poem came into my consciousness as I lay down with a sleeping Tiyas for a nap this afternoon. I willed the words to not slip away as I scrambled to grab my phone, quietly, sneakily, so as to not wake the toddler with eyes fluttering. I caught the poem and now I release it to you with these extra words of reflection.
I came across the first poem looking through various writings over the past ten years and am struck by the theme of expansion present in both pieces. The first was written during a time of upheaval, grief and change; the second during a period of relative groundedness and steadiness, but still with expansion of a different sort. The flickering flame of my soul from six years ago has grown into a steady certainty in the movement of the currents of Love that hold and guide me.
In the first, I am grappling with fear and trying my hardest to lean further into the intuition that is leading me into my next phase of life.
In the second - Now, as this me - I am receiving the expansion that intuition has allowed for.
I imagine time collapsing and Chelsea Frisbee and Chelsea Johnson sitting side by side, one willing the other into existence with her dreams, her imagination, her determination and her love. There is but a moment in between each poem and, like a breath, one cycles into the next.
What is the next Now? Where does the soaring take me? What do I let go of now and what do I receive back as another layer of expansion and new dimension as another me?
I’m committed to living the questions and allowing the unknown to unfold with grace and beauty, trusting the path, certain of the Way knowing the way.
