About Vibrant

I have been sitting on this project for about three years. After my friend Carly captured these photos, they were so perfect I wanted to be sure that the right poem was paired with them.

I present to you, Vibrant: a poetry photo series.

This poem is near and dear to me. With how my brain is wired, I experience high-highs and low-lows. Working to bring balance into how I experience my emotions has been something I’ve been working on in this last decade. I found that with emotions, I would either feel completely consumed and dismiss or suppress others. Both the “good” and the “bad” feelings.

I had the tendency of leaning in so deeply into a feeling, it became my foundation of truth. I remember feeling hopeless one day and telling Ricky that life was hopeless. Other times, things was so blissful I was sure life would be perfect forever (lol).

Through this, I found how I cannot base my truth on something as fleeting as a feeling. They are not truth–instead, they’re my personal and finite reaction to the way I perceive an experience. Feelings make a flawed foundation, but are an important facet in the human experience.

We were created to experience all emotions, with balance. They are all needed. Our culture tends to favor emotions relating happiness and tries to resolve or “get over” more challenging ones like sadness or grief. Emotions help indicate what’s going on internally.

I grieve the loss of a friend, because I loved her so much.
I felt shame years after I was sexually assaulted, which helped me uncover unhealed trauma.
Noticing insecurity has shown me where I put my source of strength and identify–often in my own striving efforts, rather than resting in the stillness + steadfastness of my identity in Christ.

During these times of difficult emotions, I also experienced joy, happiness, and fulfillment! Rarely do we hold just one emotion at a time. You can have both: the difficult and the delightful. That’s why I made Vibrant–to help illustrate the importance and complexity of emotions and how we experience them.

So! This is your ~ formal ~ invitation to allow yourself to experience emotions, even if it feels messy. You can have both–joy and sorrow, excitement and sadness, gratitude and grief.