A sample of The Unbearable Beauty—Poems and Practices for Being Alive
the unbearable beauty
poems & practices for being alive
annabelle blythe
Thought Catalog Books — thoughtcatalog.com
Contents
- the unbearable — page 9
- the beautiful — page 65
From page 7
like you, i have been through the unbearable—i have lost myself more times than i can count. like you, i have felt wildly alone, directionless, unsafe, and deeply unknown. like you, i have met many moments in which i wondered if i could keep going. but i have seen how beautiful this life is when we pay attention. i have found the beauty that lives within the dark. i offer these words as a bridge through the invisible. a tapestry of the intangible threads of life. a reminder of what remains in both the unbearable and in the beautiful. allow these poems and practices to be soothing balms. use them as tools. use them as tonics. use them for your actualization, your discernment, your deconditioning, your becoming. take them literally, figuratively, or something else. let them in like a friend, a teacher, an enemy to your self abandoning. imagine with them, experiment with them, become with them. on the other side i hope you find something new, or discover something lost.
i’ll meet you there.
a practice for when you no longer know who you are
eye gaze with yourself in the mirror
sit in front of a mirror. look into your own eyes. come back to your body. keep looking. notice who and what you find. notice how this goes beyond what you look like, what the outside world thinks of you. see if you can sense your spirit. see if you can sense that love is what looks back.
become someone new
maybe it’s okay. maybe you don’t need to go back to who you were. maybe you can become someone new. maybe there’s more than one you to find. maybe you are bigger than something that can be defined. maybe the possibilities of your life are extending outward like a branch. maybe the path you take doesn’t matter as much as you think. maybe there is no better or worse. maybe you will always end up in the same place. maybe the only thing to do is to follow your inner voice above all else. maybe all you have to do in this life is remember what your voice sounds like when it speaks.
From page 70
everything the secret part of you has dreamed is true
From page 90
there are moments in this life that you cannot move away from. i have found myself calling this a forced surrender. i have found myself here more than once. i have found that this kind of surrender occurs in two parts. the abandonment of who and what i have been, without yet knowing what i am being asked to become. like how salt dissolves into water at the right capacity—life will often ask this much. this is rarely something i ask for. this is always something i need. this is the dissolution. this is part one. in this place of pure potential, i have watched myself want to become tight. i have seen my natural urge to close up like a flower bud that isn’t ready. like a living thing that doesn’t trust the sun. when i go into this place of guarding myself from the world, the process of dissolution that this surrender requires leaves me feeling lost. it is like my insides have spilled all over the floor and no one has given me any direction on how to put myself back together again. it is like i no longer know what it means to be myself. allowing is what happens when you have the courage to stay fallen apart. it is the choice to stay open. it is the choice to look at that which was once hidden inside of you, now out in the open, and to notice what calm space has been left in its wake. it is the choice to pay attention to what life starts to slow-drip into you to fill the space this surrender has created. this is part two. if you dare to live this life in a way that is asking to fully be here—life will ask you this much in return. to dissolve, forgiving yourself for not being what you want. to allow, finding the beauty in who it is you might become.
From page 123
everything is hurting, and then life sends you an offering
everything is healing, and then life sends you a gift
you can’t hold it together, and then life sends you a gift
you can’t contain yourself, and then life sends you a gift
you’ve lost everything, and then life sends you a gift
you’re scared to lose anything, and then life sends you a gift
life is beautiful and then it is a gift
life is unbearable and then it is an offering