What Is Sacred

I'm not giving myself away anymore

From now on

People will have to earn me

My time

My attention

My energy

My wisdom

I won't be hollowed out

And left for scraps

I never understood this world

The way people take everything they can for themselves

And can't see

That when they harm others

They also harm themselves

I never saw much use in an ego

All I saw were walls

And denial

But everyone else's walls

Showed me how much I need my own

Because people will take

They'll take

Until you have nothing left

Until you make it stop

That's not how it's supposed to be

We're supposed to be able to love

Fully and freely

But in this world

Love has a cost

It's not safe

You'll be walked over and trampled on

This world doesn't know love

The things we call love

Are distortions

The closest we can get to it

Without ever really grasping it

So the best we can do

Is learn to love ourselves

The way we would love others

If they were safe for us 

But when I love myself

I suddenly find myself surrounded by the purest love there is:

Animals and children

And I realize what it means

To get what you give

When your love is pure

That love is returned to you

Animals and children exist through instinct and intuition

They feel you

When others can only attempt to conceptualize you

And will inevitably conceptualize you wrong

To exist

Is to be judged

And misunderstood

And to experience distorted love

That never feels quite right

Until you finally realize

There was never a moment in time

That you didn't deserve to be loved

And that's when you begin to recognize it

In small, sweet moments

In your cat coming to comfort you

In your child cuddling up next to you

In the small gifts the universe brings you

We deserve love

And we deserve companionship

But it won't always come in the form we expect

My broken heart

Needs kindness

And comfort

A kind of love that feels you

Without you having to speak

And in an instant you'll realize

That in a world devoid of love

You've managed to create it around you

How precious that is

How sacred

And you realize

How much it needs to be protected

I won't give myself away anymore

I won't share

What won't be appreciated or taken care of

My love is precious and sacred

I am precious and sacred

I won't give myself away anymore