When youāve gone under
Thereās a moment after youāve made your way back to the surface
That you know you are fully at the mercy of the ocean
That if another wave were toā¦
Between Waves
Continue Reading >Ā Between Waves
Hi, I'm Emilie š Writing is how I make sense of the world in and around me. I created this space to explore the beauty, hilarity, madness, and mystery of this human experience and share what I find along the way.
Do Learn Grow is inspired by Mary Oliver's Instructions For Living a Life, Dawna Markova's I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, Elizabeth Gilbert's TED Talk, Mark Nepo's Encouragement to Sing, Megan Price's Pep Talk, and Mae Martin's Snow Globes.
Latest: Everything
![Between Waves]()
Image: Matt Hardy Surrender - Elizabeth Gilbert
![Surrender - Elizabeth Gilbert]()
Image: Elizabeth Gilbert āYou are afraid of surrender because you donāt want to lose control.
But you never had control; all you had was anxiety.āā Elizabeth Gilbert
Continue Reading >Ā Surrender - Elizabeth Gilbert
Casting Shadows
![Casting Shadows]()
Image: Sajjad Ahmadir Just a costume, this skin
Look at me and tell me youāre in on the jokeBut itās all so serious
Entire lives ruled
by words and labels we createdEntire wars fabricated and fought
ā¦Continue Reading >Ā Casting Shadows
Strange Things We Do
![Strange Things We Do]()
Image: Denny MĆ¼ller Them: This is who I am.
Us: No youāre not. This is who you are.Them: This is who I am.
Us: It would make me more comfortable if you pretended to be something else.Them: This is who I am.
Us:ā¦Continue Reading >Ā Strange Things We Do
Coming Home
![Coming Home]()
Image: Annie Spratt I want to be here.
I want to remember
how to feel
everythingEverything.
May my mind and body
meet again
like two old friends
coming home.Continue Reading >Ā Coming Home
In Between
![In Between]()
Image: Ramy Kabalan Am I coming or going?
Is this staying or leaving?
Why does healing feel like grief?
It would be so much easier to grasp for one thing
or the otherIt would be so much easier to drive a stake in the ground
ā¦Continue Reading >Ā In Between
Watchtower
![Watchtower]()
Image: Emilie Hester Little One, you can come down now.
But who will keep us safe?
I will keep us safe. Come down.
I donāt know how.
One step at a time.
Iām scared.
I know. Iām not leavingā¦
Continue Reading >Ā Watchtower
Learning to Breathe
![Learning to Breathe]()
Image: Emilie Hester I āve tried meditation a few dozen times over the years.
I was never really able to make it click, until I had to.Early last year my brain was stuck in overdrive and I couldnāt find quiet.
So, with someā¦Continue Reading >Ā Learning to Breathe
It's Only Life
![It's Only Life]()
Play - Image: Emilie Hester ā
My Love, you notice so beautifully.
But for fuck's sake, when did you start taking it all so seriously?
Continue Reading >Ā It's Only Life
The Roar of a Gentle Heart
![The Roar of a Gentle Heart]()
The Roar of a Gentle Heart - Image: Glen Carrie Continue Reading >Ā The Roar of a Gentle Heart
Swallowed Whole
Many of us know what it is to be swallowed by grief;
may we also know what it is to be swallowed by joy.Continue Reading >Ā Swallowed Whole
Crumbs
Where in your life are you starving but accepting crumbs for yourself?
Continue Reading >Ā Crumbs
You Are Enough
You will be too much for some people and not enough for others.
Neither will matter if youāre enough for yourself.Continue Reading >Ā You Are Enough
Wake Up
We wake up the moment we realize that we are living someone elseās dream.
And we are free the moment we are brave enough to live our own.Continue Reading >Ā Wake Up
Choose Peace
We can have our need to be right or we can have peace.
I choose peace.Continue Reading >Ā Choose Peace
Hide and Seek
![Hide and Seek]()
Hide and Seek - Image: Annie Spratt ā£ā£ā£Perhaps one of the greatest ironies of what it means to be human is that we are equipped with both a soul that so desperately longs to be known and an ego that causesā¦
Continue Reading >Ā Hide and Seek
Jump In
If you want to learn to swim, you can read about it, and you can watch other people do it, but at some point you have to jump in the water.
The same can be said for living.Continue Reading >Ā Jump In
My 10 Greatest Life Lessons (So Far)
![My 10 Greatest Life Lessons (So Far)]()
Swim - Image: Jeremy Bishop -
Some of the most painful moments of my life came from putting my unquestioning belief in things that we made up. Rules. Boxes. Labels. Shoulds. Shouldnāts.ā
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Freedom came when I realized I didnāt have to blindly go along with these things and that if someone was going to choose the meaning of my life, it was going to be me.ā
ā¦
Continue Reading >Ā My 10 Greatest Life Lessons (So Far)
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Free or Constricted
Who are you with, where are you, what are you doing when you feel the most free?
Who are you with, where are you, what are you doing when you feel the most constricted?Continue Reading >Ā Free or Constricted
The Space to See
![The Space to See]()
Reflection - Image: Emilie Hester I always find myself craving space and quiet after big life changes.
When Iāve been standing too close to something for too long, itās easy to forget that Iām only seeingā¦
Continue Reading >Ā The Space to See
Dare to Bloom
![Dare to Bloom]()
Sunflowers - Image: Emilie Hester We are the only creatures that fight so hard against the truth of ourselves.
Flowers bloom. Grass grows. Mountains rise.
Humans hide and shrink and pretend.
We live aā¦Continue Reading >Ā Dare to Bloom
Gary
![Gary]()
Me & Gary - Image: Emilie Hester Maybe it was the unbearable thought of him dying alone
Maybe it was that I never saw his body
Or that I didnāt get to say goodbye
But I could not make myself believe heā¦Continue Reading >Ā Gary
Wild and Free
![Wild and Free]()
Run Free - Image: Emilie Hester The thing isā¦
This life is short and you, My Love, are pure potential.Donāt just stand there blowing in the wind, mistaking motion for action.
Dig deeper.
Grow taller.
ā¦Continue Reading >Ā Wild and Free
Unseen - Robin Church
![Unseen - Robin Church]()
Be Still - Image: Robin Church Tender wavelets wash my happy feet and
the still soft sun kisses my
morning face in silent benediction;
alone except for crabs scuttling in
and out of their sandy holes,
ā¦Continue Reading >Ā Unseen - Robin Church
The Potential of Each Moment
![The Potential of Each Moment]()
Blank Page - Image: Kelly Sikkema We hold up our history like a crystal ball
letting our past predict our future.But what could we do?
Where could we go?
If the potential of each moment
was itās own?What would we be capable of
if yesterdayās couldnāt
didnāt automatically become
todayās canātā¦Continue Reading >Ā The Potential of Each Moment
A Familiar Discomfort
![A Familiar Discomfort]()
Image: Olive Paaske I see you there
Your hands filled with rocks
Theyāre cutting into your skin
Your body is exhausted from bearing their weight
But still your fingers stretch wide to wrapā¦Continue Reading >Ā A Familiar Discomfort
Comfort vs Effort
![Comfort vs Effort]()
Being Formed - Image: Quino Al I am in love with the idea that here we are, these endlessly pliable creatures, ready to take the shape of whatever we repeatedly ask ourselves to become.
The change weā¦
Continue Reading >Ā Comfort vs Effort
Through the Cracks
![Through the Cracks]()
Through the Cracks - Image: Joe Dudeck The best I have to give doesnāt come from my strength. It comes from my cracks.
It comes from where Iām weak, vulnerable, worn, real.
It comes from the places where lifeā¦Continue Reading >Ā Through the Cracks
To the Full
![To the Full]()
Wolf Moon - Image: Emilie Hester What if you were to come out from hiding?
What if you were to live fully out of your heart?
Would you wear it on your sleeve like a badge of courage and love?
Could youā¦Continue Reading >Ā To the Full
Choose to Grow
![Choose to Grow]()
Choose to Grow - Image: Emilie Hester Challenge yourself every day to do more than you think youāre capable of.
When you want to quit, donāt.
When you think you canāt, try.
Itās not about perfection.
Itāsā¦Continue Reading >Ā Choose to Grow
The Deep
![The Deep]()
The Deep - Image: Christian Palmer Thereās a place inside of us that I call The Deep. I think most people likely give this label to their hearts because when something true and pure lands inside us, itā¦
Continue Reading >Ā The Deep
