Nikki Sterling is a poet and writer from Central Florida. She loves to travel and spend time in her garden. When she is not writing or working on projects you can find her travelling with her husband and her son, exploring new destinations, and discovering amazing food and cultures. Nikki has been writing poetry for many years; Sackcloth & Silk is her debut poetry collection. She is known across Social Media as Paragonwords. Nikki’s work touches on love, life, faith, trauma, and healing. She’s humbled and grateful for the souls that read her poems.
You can find her @paragonwords on all social media platform or on her blog at www.paragonwords.org
Sometimes it gets into your soul, and you can’t shake the low dark cloud that’s hanging over your head. The chatter, the lies, the bitter words, all the things you allowed yourself to believe, all the things you are still holding on to. They are not true; they don’t define you.
Here are 5 steps to help you accept how wonderful and bless you are:
1. Let it go and set your soul free.
2. You are enough even on the rough days
3. You don’t need validation; your authenticity is your truth.
4. Embrace your uniqueness and your strengths.
5. Let the world see your light, you’ve hidden it long enough.
Bonus 6. Forgive yourself and others, this is the only way to move forward.
The days are full of trouble, but the days are also full of hope and beauty. Every morning you get an opportunity to wake up and choose life.
I want to encourage you today to hold on; to not give in to grief. It will rob you of your best days, but you will survive. There’s hope at the bending of the road, a shift in time that will forever connect the lineage of hearts and hands, of soul and spirit. What you’ve lost will never be forgotten and what you’ve gained will live in your heart until the end of time.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” —Thomas Edison
It’s time you understand that there’s no need to hide your failures, there’s no need to be ashamed if you’ve started something that did not worked out. There’s power in accepting your truth, there’s liberation in understanding that this is YOUR life, and you can change course, you can start over, you can make something new as many times as it takes for you to be happy and fulfilled. I know you’ve heard this before, but let me tell you again, all the things that happened in your past DOES NOT define who you are or who you can become. So, start again and again and again until you’ve mastered the art of acceptance, starting over and success.
These 8 quotes on starting over that will help you look to the future with hope.
It’s ok to start over as many times as needed.
You are worthy of second chances.
Take time to understand your journey.
Learn from your mistakes and start something wonderful.
The lesson is in the moments between failure and success.
Your ideas are valid, never let them die.
Find a new path and write a new story.
Patience is the key, what is yours will always find you.
Be proud of your journey; learn from the unfavorable experiences, expand your heart and grow and rise and become the best version of yourself.
If you find this post meaningful, leave me a comment.
You know who you are, you know what you’ve been through, you know how you got here, you know the prayers that were spoken over you, you know that you are bless, so why do you let people limit you with their words, their actions, their thoughts and their ideology?
Stop holding on to the season you’re in, stop giving your time and attention to people who are stagnant, who refuse to grow and move, who would rather pull you down than see you rise.
Don’t you see you’ve outgrown this space; you’ve outgrown their friendship, don’t you understand that they don’t deserve your love, your kindness, your truth and your energy.
Let them go, break the attachment, this is a new season and sometimes you have to walk into it alone. You have the power within you to claim and overcome everything that has stopped you from moving forward. This is your time, your season, to make that extraordinary move.
People need to see your light; it’s bursting out from beneath your burnt-out soul. Take a breath, calm yourself and prepare your heart so the light and go through you.
I hope this post helps you to look at where your energy and time is being spent. You have things to accomplish, places to visit and people to love. Make sure you are on the right track by evaluating your connections.
Here’s a poem from Sackcloth & Silk my new Poetry collection.
It’s such a joy to share one of my poems from Page 113 of my new poetry book Sackcloth & Silk.
Chain Breaker
We don’t bleed the same My blood is black and blue It carries the venom of past lovers And play God with the sacrifices Of my ancestors It has extinguished the light From my eyes and kept me chained For far too long We don’t feel the same I’m immortal to pain I’ve crucified the emotions That held me captive I’ve walked through fire I’ve stared down giants I’ve watched them fall at my feet I’ve aborted the truth From my tongue We don’t hurt the same My hurt is from a deep place A cemetery of broken hearts Broken past Broken dreams A cycle repeating itself From generation to generation My pain has found a home Amongst gravestones So Tell me what you know about sacrifice And I’ll tell you how I became A chain breaker
Some called it intuition, sixth sense, a hunch, a feeling, my grandmother calls it gut feelings, but no matter the name, I always listen to it and pays attention. That feeling that’s crawling between your soul and your bones, it’s always trying to warn you, to tell you something is not right. Often times we ignore it and ended up paying the consequences.
This poem speaks of the truth of not listening to your gut feelings.
Broken Link
These walls no longer
Hold me
This house without
Your warm smile
No longer feels like home
A broken link
A body without hands
And hearts
You were the epicenter
Of my world
A beautiful disaster
I saw coming
But couldn’t turn
Away from
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This poem along with many more can be found in my book Sackcloth & Silk.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Desmond Tutu
I know it’s cliché, I know you’ve heard it over and over again. Don’t give up on love.
So hear me out for a second!
Someone you love and trusted has ripped your heart wide open and you are left with the brokenness, the betrayal, the hurt and the feeling that you will never love or trust anyone again.
For some, the betrayal is unthinkable, and you can’t even bring yourself to talk about it. For some, you are still carrying the resentment and anger in your heart. For some, you shut the world out and fall into a dark place. For some the pain is too great and you made a promise to never let your guard down.
No matter how wrong things have gone for you, I want to encourage you today not to give up on love. Whether it’s a friend, a spouse, a brother, a sister or a lover, you have to get up, forgive them and move on.
Stop going back and reliving the pain. Forgive the person that hurt you, then forgive yourself.
Don’t give up on love. Never give up on yourself. No matter how many times love has let you down.
I believe one day when you least expect it, love will find you, and someone will tell you that you are their greatest hope and their sweetest blessing.
It’s not impossible, you’re not too old, or too broken, stop telling yourself that you don’t deserve love, that no one will ever love you. Start changing your pattern of thinking, let it all go and open your heart to the future and all the possibilities that awaits you.
After all you are my greatest hope.
There are good things waiting for you! I hope you know that, I pray you believe that.
You were born into it, the hardship, the pain, the abused, the sickness, the worry, the neglect, the endless tears……. you’ve seen and experience more than you should. You’ve tried and failed more times than you should. You’ve questioned your worth. You’ve stayed silent even when you have so much to say.
But today I want to tell you something you probably already know.
You are precious and your life is worth far more than you could ever image.
Give yourself and your situation some grace today.
You carry so much light in you, but you need to let the darkness go, so you can shine for the world to see.
I want you to remember that no matter how bad your circumstances are; you are not defined by them.
Your worth is not defined by your overflowing to do list
Your beauty is not defined by your weight
Your goals are not defined by your failures
Your truth is not defined by what others think of you
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” ― Maya Angelou
All of us in our own way are dealing with something we rather not speak about. We are imperfect, we are tired, we stumble through our days trying to hold on to the promises we made to ourselves, but on the hard days, I remind myself that I am still here, I am alive and bless even in the midst of my circumstances. No matter how dark the days are, I can still choose to let the light in.
This is your reminder, the light is always with us, in us and around us, choose to let it in today. Whatever you are going through I pray you find the courage to overcome and find peace again.
I love this quote by Earnest Hemingway, “We are all a little broken, that’s how the light gets in”
I think it’s fitting for the day and time that we are living in. Normal as we know it no longer exist and we are learning how to pivot and adjust. There are some deep darkness and even some hopelessness in the lives of those we love, and it’s up to us to show them that they are stronger than their circumstances. There’s light along the broken path, Show them the beauty in accepting the truth that change is inevitable and they can rise stronger than before.
HOPE, COMING BACK HOME
You are worthy
Of the music in your soul
The air upon your skin
The light
That has finally return
To your eyes
You told me of the darkness
How you fought and won
And I could feel hope
Bending the edges
Letting the light in
I could see joy
Coming back home
To the soft places
()()()
If you read this post and find some comfort, let me know in the comment.
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With gratitude
Nikki
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ps..you can follow me @paragonwords on all social media platform.