"I am the morning song" // Melissa Fernandez: Brave First Steps
Happy birthday to beloved staff creative and inspiratrice Melissa Fernandez.
She welcomed a new decade of "life riddles and wild adventures" with us in her photo essay, "My Forty," in The Phoenix Soul: Brave First Steps.
December came with great ache and frustration, as Melissa was caught in a web of shoulds and must-dos to make her "a worthy woman":
“December brought me to the light, delivered me
into sheer brightness and clarity. The strength of despair also guided me. With her dark ways, she unveiled the piercing truth.”
Melissa remembered that her forty is a trickster and a teacher:
“This is one woman’s story. This is my forty. All my many escapades of living. [...] All the new ways that surfaced when surrender was the next best ending. All my heart-wrenching stories of a human trying to make it through. This is all we’re ever doing.”
She then rises triumphantly:
“This is my experience of life riddles and wild adventures. Of heartache and pain. Of reaching and rising. Of getting up once again as a new morning welcomes me back. Of a dark night when my soul sings, erupts truth, and invites gentle first steps.”
Welcome to forty, Melissa. Thank you for inviting us to journey with you as you brave-step into a new decade.
Love & respect,
Amanda
(your fellow phoenix)
