Here’s to my voice of reason

Because it’s there in every season

For the bitter, cold winter storm

And the sun-kissed, delightful warm

It shields a tear-soaked me from the rain

It calls me gently by my name

And says “step out from under this raincloud

Because you’re going to catch a cold now”

Even when I refuse to listen

My voice of reason is never hidden

Not by all the lies and disbelief

It knows how to bring me relief

In the height of attack by anxiety

My voice of reason will not cease to fight for me

I am the greatest prize to be won in this war

And when I wake up wondering what it’s all for

This voice reminds me what I’m worth

More than anything on this Earth

It says I’m an interstellar being

A sight worth seeing with words worth reading

My voice of reason always has patience

When I can’t see the truth it is always gracious

An amalgam of every struggle I’ve seen

This voice has managed to take all the negativity

And turn it into wisdom and healing

So when the rest of me is sent reeling

Into dark waters by all the issues I face

This voice is an anchor that wraps me in an embrace

Holds on tight and pulls until I see the sun again

It soothes me until I remember how to breathe again

I don’t give enough credit to this voice in me

I’m always focused on how I break and bleed

I get swept away by the cacophony in my brain

I let it ravage my inner self like a hurricane

I let myself sit in the ruins, endlessly wondering

If I will ever be strong enough to start recovering

If only I’d learn to appreciate those echoes in my mind’s atmosphere

Because they reverberate from somewhere

So deep it can’t be tainted by all the pain

A place where such a strong foundation is lain

It is from here that this thunderous voice booms

Loud enough to break glass and fill rooms

Telling the mother fucking mirror where to shove it

Telling me not to care what they think because I’m above it

Telling me to turn my pain into poetry

Telling me there is so much good in me

I would’ve thought it pretentious once

To call my own inner voice my role model, but

I’ve never meant that much to myself

And I’m tired of walking through hell

Thinking I don’t deserve more

Pushing for perfection like I have to be more

Than I am

Because I am everything I’m supposed to be

I want to love myself enough to say I’m everything I’ve ever wanted to be

To say I’m someone that would make four-year-old me proud

To adore everything I am, right here, right now

As I work toward that, I just want to show appreciation

For the parts of me that take me as I am, no explanations

Because one day when my mind is clear and self love is all I see

I’ll look back and see how my voice of reason guided me

All the way home.