Look over your shoulder  At the rugged terrain  Lessons, memories and stories  Are all that remain  There is no going back now  Nothing to change  So carry the knowing  It was never in vain  Let your heartbeat slow down  And soften your breath  At the top of this mountain  Let yourself rest  As you watch the sun set  On a journey so hard  Take note of the strength  That carried you this far  Find hope in the knowing  A path lies ahead  That isn’t as rugged  But lit up, instead  And there in your pocket  Is the wisdom you found  On a long, tiring journey  That knocked you around  And alongside that wisdom  Is a note from your friend -  “You’ve got this, I love you,  I’m with you, till the end.”

I watched the sun set  I watched the sun rise  Upon the blue lake  One hundred butterflies  Maybe soon  I'll take off my disguise  Am I ready  For the girl that lives inside?  No more cries  Naked skin  Beneath these starry skies  They'll see me raw  No more faces to hide  They'll watch me soar  Like one hundred butterflies

I died with you  At the edge of the sea  Where spirit sings a lullaby  To those who hear her melody

How long does it take for a bird inside a cage to accept it as their home?

I am you in the mirror  You are me in the mirror  The water is a reflection of you  You are a reflection of the water  You breathe the air  The air breathes you  You hold the earth  The earth holds you  You burn inside the fire  The fire burns inside of you  Separation is an illusion  Until we understand this  We can never be free

Tears flow gently  Beneath a moonlit sky  For a bittersweet epiphany  Is the reason why I cry

There’s a part in all of us  Longing to be free  Because we don’t even know  How caged we are  With our feet  Separated from the earth  Our hearts  Disconnected from the truth  Our minds  Flooded in thought  Waves crashing  How we long for air  How we yearn for calm  In this world of chaos  And we grasp onto anything  Anything that makes us feel alive  Anything that frees us  From the cages we live in

And you’ll start to notice the little things  Like the way the autumn leaves gently fall towards the ground  Dancing their farewell dance  A performance of beauty for the sun

I was child  Born beneath synthetic light  Inside walls of concrete  And though I breathed your air  You were not to be seen  No blue or no green  And still, she held me  Mother  This sacred vessel  She held me  Knowing I would find my way  And I did  Even though they wiped my memory  Stole my imagination  And used it to fuel the disconnect of a nation  A collective of forgotten connection to creation  Until we awaken  To see  And become child again