creative writing & poetry
there are lines that live in my hands
and make a living
by telling
my past my future
my present
these are not poetic lines,
but they are geometric —
my fingers can trace
the triangle they make:
my past my future
my present
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I began the day
no – the day began
me
o p e n i n g – closing – o p e n i n g – closing – o p e n i n g – clo –
give me those lemons – the l e m o n a d e
looks fresher in Greek – λ ε μ ο ν ά δ α
that said, I’m not sure if it tasted fresher when
my mum got stung in Athens that day
Graduating from university and contemplating your next steps can feel like walking through thick fog – especially in the midst of a global pandemic. The unknown can be full of fear – but it can also be full of hope. It can be “the worst of times and the best of times” – and it definitely was, for Megan Williams.
Megan had just graduated from Leeds Arts University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Advertising when she crossed paths with us, back in 2020. Reflecting on how she and her fellow classmates felt at that time, she says, “Before I got involved with Creative Conscience, it was quite a depressing moment and quite despairing – especially coming out of university on just a random day, it did kind of just put us all down…”
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below the surface
it’s only you
and your hands
medusa-like
in the reflections
of light
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There’s a gentle, wise tree
With leaves that remind me
The world’s fragility
And I dream of how it would be
If this was my reality
If I could always stay there
Taking refuge in its serenity
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Your fears are not here
Now
The last time you met them
They told you:
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Some moments in life make us feel what being alive truly means, in a very powerful way, in all our cells… In such moments, when I stop and take a deep breath, look inwards and then around me, at the sky; the feelings of gratefulness, love and serenity wash over my soul, and make me realize that only this moment exists, and I’m fully present, fully “here”…
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The journey is the thing.”
This quote by the ancient Greek poet Homer was written on a notebook I bought two years ago – a light blue, thin notebook with sea shells on it. It struck a chord deep within and I always came back to it, especially when I got lost in thought over the future, over the next ‘destination’, over the to-do lists. It always brought me back to ‘this moment’, the moment I was in, and helped me realize that this is all that I have, and all that I ever need.
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Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
This quote by Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor E. Frankl, the author of one of the most deeply touching, illuminating and thought-provoking books I’ve ever read, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, never ceases to give me goosebumps.
We all have the innate power within, no matter whether we realize it or not, to connect with our inner core wisdom instead of getting caught in the web of our Ego, to respond with our heartfelt, genuine feelings and thoughts instead of reacting with our habitual defensive patterns and primitive coping mechanisms, to hold space for ourselves and embrace our vulnerability even in the most challenging situations, instead of wearing our armour and denying our humanness and resisting our pain, while unconsciously making it much bigger.
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Our fears aren’t monsters that we need to protect ourselves from by pulling the blanket over our heads as we used to do when we were little – they indeed have dark sides, but what in this vast universe doesn’t?
When they come to visit us, we may tightly shut the door to prevent them from entering, and start thinking that we’ve escaped them, that we’re free now. But what we may not realize is that we’ve shut the door not only to them but also to other emotions, other feelings that would’ve soon come to bring us light and peace and freedom… When we close that door, we in fact take away our freedom with our own hands that turn the key.
Instead, if we could try to connect with the wisdom we hold by looking within, and choose to take a step towards our painful emotions, even though the ground beneath our feet may tremble at the beginning, we will slowly begin to realize that with each step it becomes stronger. With each step that we take, with our strength, courage and confidence growing inside…
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d i l a q u i s 