forest-deity-suggestions

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You can rest here for a moment, but don’t keep your eyes closed long.

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He’s sleeping now. By the sea. You can wake him if you find him.

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How do you do it? How do you keep going?

Well, my dear, that is a vast question, isn’t it? I’ve seen the rise and fall of beings great and small who thought they would last forever, when truly it was only for a moment. But that moment, it was worth it. I can still see echoes of them in the trees, every one of them left an impact on those that they loved and those that loved them. Isn’t there something beautiful in that?

Keep going to see the next sunrise. Keep going to make someone laugh. Keep going to hear the birdsong break through the silence, winter giving way to spring. Keep going because things will change, they will always change. And that change might be better this time.

[forest-deity-suggestions]

“Call it a wild perversity or a wild optimism, but they were right, our ancestors, to celebrate what they feared. What I fear I avoid. What I fear I pretend does not exist. What I fear is quietly killing me. Would there be a festival for my fears, a ritual burning of what is coward in me, what is lost in me. Let the light in before it is too late.”

— Jeanette Winterson, “The Green Man” | The World and Other Places: Stories

[forest-deity-suggestions]

x / Landscape With Fruit Rot And Millipede, Richard Siken

[forest-deity-suggestions]

There is a gentleness in forest fires.

[forest-deity-suggestions]

You were given this heart for a reason, trust it. Hold it close and keep it safe.

[forest-deity-suggestions]

Lay your head to sleep, child.

[forest-deity-suggestions]

Fear not the divine, for we merely wish to be seen, acknowledged, and known once more.

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Branches torn by ice and storms still bloom, dear heart.

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Once, they were immortal. But they were forgotten.

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Storms once grew at my fingertips... Now, I gentle the storms within your heart. I pray that I help you find the calm within your storm.

[forest-deity-suggestions]

Remember the forgotten, my child.

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You sit in the dark, rocking yourself like a child, cradling a piece of driftwood in your arms, praying for the river it came from to cradle you too.

[forest-deity-suggestions]

Do not doubt your own heart, sweet one. You are trying to give yourself a message, listen.

[forest-deity-suggestions]

…

[forest-deity-suggestions]

Love yourself, little one. You'll find it keeps you warmer.

Sometimes I miss the rage. It kept me warm.