"We are stars wrapped in skin" - A poem for StarSeeds

Photography: Greg Rakozy

Written by Chantell Fellowes, Founder Flow For Thought

We are made of planets, stars and oceans, 

That orbit and ripple through us at depths we have not yet explored,

Eruptions and quakes that crack us open, that shake us, and wake us, 

Allowing the light to peek in and shine tiny little sparkles on the shy parts of our soul

It’s ok to not have explored these depths, 

It’s ok to not be a master at peace,

We are students learning about forgiveness,

This Earth life lesson of forgiveness,

The fierceness of the human ego twists circles of doubt into the resilience of our human spirit,

It is undeniably heart breaking,

And yet there is wonder in what we are,

Our infinite connection with the stars, longing and lusting,

We are learning how to forgive ourselves on the days our wild and stormy seas wreck ships and flood towns,

Sometimes our temperatures rise and that wild, eruptive lava inside of us pours out onto the Earth and burns down everything we love and everything we have built

Alas, the trick is to not get caught up in self-loathing, 

The trick is to not get lost in the dark,

We must take back our power, allowing even the smallest drop of rain to soak into our bones and sprout new beginnings, 

You see, nature shows us how to really live…nature shows us how life works,

We start to grow and sometimes we miscalculate our surroundings,

And yet we still try so hard to grow, even though we miss the sun completely, 

And we must instead wallow in the shadows, defeated

Sometimes we cannot find the vital source of energy that keeps us flourishing with life, 

The energy that we crave to our very core,

Sometimes the environment we choose to grow in fails us 

So, we wilt, we surrender

And then we plunge back into the earth more determined only to be born again, and again, and again. 

And again.

We don’t give up,

We don’t cave in,

We do whatever it takes to flower again,

To stretch out our petals and feel the sun dancing over us, celebrating us

But loving ourselves through the days that we feel hopelessly unlovable is the most important thing,

It’s the most important thing,

Not just for our soul, but for our heart and for our mind,

We cannot let the world build silver shields around us,

We must let the shields yield a greater investment of love

A greater investment of love. 

We must spend our precious mornings touching the freckles on our skin and running our fingers through our hair,

Expanding our hearts to look beyond our mistakes and send ourselves this love,

A love with no terms

A love of with no conditions, 

A love with no contracts,

A love free of currency and judgement,

A love that undeniably penetrates through us, inwards, lighting up every atom of stardust that manifests our existence

May we shine brighter than we ever thought possible

May we shine as a fallen star whose heart is beating down songs of love onto the Earth