A Prayer for Releasing During the Full Moon
When I was young I went to Catholic school
in church, we would sing
“This little light of mine,
I’m gonna to let it shine..” 🎵
Childish even when I was a child,
surface, silly, repetitive -
mirroring the repetitiveness
of the bible verses and stories
we heard each year in church
drilled into our heads without meaning
I woke up this morning with this song
and bible verse in my mind,
“Don’t hide your light under a bushel -”
ironic that a relic from my childhood religion
I thought I had long discarded
would come back to me
On this full moon
I’ve since learned about the moon,
as a symbol of the feminine -
full moons mean “release”
and follow new moons
which mean new beginnings
A rhythmic ebb and flow of
taking in and letting go
breathing in and breathing out
It makes sense a woman’s body
follows its own cycle
patterned alongside the moon’s
But the bible verse arrived
in my adult mind today -
it felt real-world, lived
and applicable
It rattled around my mind and body
and penetrated to the core
The core that has lived decades in hiding
pretending so as to fit in
so no one finds out who I really am
I didn’t use words like healing
It was safer to reference science
I convinced myself my creativity was a liability
Efficiency was more important
That empathic ability to see into someone else -
All pushed down and denied
Is it any wonder I suffered
from so much depression
Be quiet, be safe
Be someone other than you
So today on this full moon
I’m letting go of the old story,
the fear of being seen
Of being unworthy
I choose to put my words to paper
Giving ink and space and time
to the gentle insistence from my soul
Putting the metaphors on paper
so they will no longer
metastasize inside
I write to honor my own unique blend
of wisdom and way of being in
and perceiving the world
I write to inspire hope
to express the inexplicable knowing,
with every fiber of my being,
that we’re letting go of
what no longer serves us
collectively and
individually, one by one
This is my vow and prayer
to bring my light
out from under the bushel
“...I’m gonna to let it shine..” 🎵