Judith Espinosa wrote The Awakening to help others who've endured great loss, illness, and heartbreak of any kind. People like you and me, who'd rather lay claim to this new life than live the rest of our days being victims of our circumstances. I’m happy and grateful to be able to share her poem here in full, with you.

Whatever's flipped your life upside down this year, now you're here. You've been planted somewhere new; actually, something new has been planted in you. A seed. And you decide how you nurture it, water it, weed it, let it root & bloom. You get to decide, here & now, how it unfurls & how you grow with it, through it.

What if you’re not ready to change? Not ready to feel the full spectrum of your feelings? What if your healing feels rushed… even if it’s been months, years since you started hurting? This is a short note just to say… it’s OK. You’re OK. Treat yourself like a garden & you’ll see, you don’t have to bloom all year long.

Meditating on the moon is at once grounding and uplifting. With your body resting on the earth and your eyes to the sky, it’s hard not to feel lifted out of your worries, plucked from your grievances, and planted firmly in the knowing that life on earth is a gift.

When my brother died by suicide eight years ago, I didn't know what to expect out of life after. Do you go through the stages of grief, one at a time? How long till you can laugh again? Does the pain ever go away? I found some answers, but not all of them. I learned that grief lasts a lifetime, but love lasts forever.

October is my favorite month. The colors, the cooler air but still sun on your skin, the transformation that happens right in front of your eyes. Year after year, it's still a thing of magic. So I wrote you some October affirmations to help you embrace the beauty of the season, the joy of being here, right now.

I've been working on some new prints for my people (that's youuu) and here's what I've got: 3 affirmations, 4 poems, and 1 prayer for change. Because the start of a new month is always a good time to take ownership of your life. Here's to transformation of the best kind.

Let’s be honest: nothing makes death easier for the ones left behind. Yet what breaks your heart connects you to others in new ways. Through that common thread, you grow the courage to bloom from your wounds. To grow, to give, to live again. And here’s what that might mean for you…

Grief hurts. It can feel like wreckage, like being washed away and remade in a new way. We can label grief as bad, badgering it into being innately wrong when, in fact, it’s proof that we’ve lived and loved. Really lived, really loved. This poem embraces grief as part of LIFE, not just death, and essential to healing.

Have you ever felt so broken that you know you’ll never be the same again? Maybe you feel that way now. Know this: here, after all the falling apart and right in the middle of not-knowing, you can breathe. You can make something new. That’s because even though you’re breaking, you’re unbreaking too. Read this poem to feel better about it.