Exhale.

And she exhaled.
Not because she wanted to.
Not because she was told to.
Not because there was really space to,
nor much time permitted for it also.

And she exhaled... because she had to.
Because she had free choice and the need to do so.

And as she exhaled she realized no one had given her permission to.
And as she began, she didn't know if it was absolutely okay, 
or alright to do so.

But she knew the out-breath carried peace with it and absence and a certain time afterwards to pause.

So she exhaled and she continued to.

She remembered again that this is how she created her own space.

She dropped the story that was spinning around her, of not enough time or too much or perhaps not enough energy or agility or strength and she said to all those dialogues,
'No.'
And instead to her own body,
She said, 'Yes.'

And she came back into it again.
Into the feeling of grounded earth beneath her toes and solid bones under her cocoa smelling flesh.
And she knew she could do it.
She knew she could handle all.

For the wisdom inside of her told her it was greater than any one voice outside.

And she exhaled.
She let go.
She paused.
And she said, 'Thank you.'
And she kissed her own hand and different parts of her sweet body, 
starting next at her wrist and heading up the length of her arm.

And she loosened those places that were tight.

And she exhaled.

Because she and her body knew, this was how to begin.

~ Sarah Norrad - Published in full version at Medium