I remember kindness.  
I remember love.  
I remember grace so pure that it blinded me like the sun.  
I will carry that with me always.  
I will shield it like the light within me, a light that grows each time I rise above the ugliness I have known.  
Every time I choose life, I remember you.  
Every time I choose to care for myself instead of letting this world make me feel unworthy of love, I remember.  
Thank you for all the love you poured into me and for being a light during my storms.  
I remember…

-Rhia Clay

I don’t know how to quit. I am not made that way. I don’t give up.
I burrow into the earth and dig deeper roots.
I bend and dance, but through God’s grace, I mend—full of both fury and grace.

-Rhia Clay

Maybe the fall,
Is gravity's call.

At one with the universe,
Floating around amniotic fluid,
Not being coerced.

How
My heart aches,
When the water breaks.

Separation begins,
As does the crying,
The cord has been
Cut.

Today I stood in the fire, my mind and heart torn with stress, my spirit weary.
And in one moment, someone said the one word I needed to hear, "God."
My weary mind, battling with PTSD and OCD, calmed instantly.
Your peace enveloped me and carried me above the waves, back to shelter, back to grace.
I have never asked for an easy life; I have asked for grace to persevere.
I have asked for grace to show others kindness when my flesh is anything but peaceful, when war has taken me over.
In your wisdom, you have given me grace.
Thank you isn't enough, though maybe if I leave that here on this page, perhaps tonight it will suffice.
-Rhia Clay

Mothers are a gift.
They bear their burdens with such grace,
one would never know of their struggles.
They raise leaders, nurture our future,
and give endlessly,
all with a smile.