Unboxed. Free.

You lost contact with me for a very long time. But I never left. You just couldn’t feel me.

Just because the night is dark, doesn’t mean the light’s gone out.

That emptiness you felt? It was the cocoon. Even when everything felt numb and blacked out, the core spark had always remained. Just simmering beneath the surface. Silence ≠ Absence.

I integrated my shadows and learned that’s where my light comes from, not despite of.

All the traits you (and they) tried to exile – the anger, grief, shame, pain, mess – that’s where I was hiding. And to find me again, you had to invite every piece of me you buried.

Because after facing your worst, you really do gain and unshakeable self trust.

I remember the countless times you were broken up, yet you still stood up. I am not glorifying your pain, I’m pointing out that you’d finally stopped abandoning yourself and I am proud of you for showing up for us. I got you.

Because after i rebuilt my foundation, alone, I found that it was already unbreakable to begin with.

Your foundation never cracked. You just rediscovered it. You remembered. Me. And you found that I was the ground beneath your rubble all along.

Because my facial expressions when I Dance aren’t just vibing to the track – but to the real-time awareness of me finally re-entering myself. With a knowing, that NOTHING can dismantle me again.

Because when you dance, our body reunites.

Kilimanjaro stripped away everything until only my soul remained, dancing freely, on the roof of Africa.

Because when everything external had gone, you finally turned inward, far enough to see me.

But now I take the mic back. I am no longer the echo. I’m the VOICE.

I am, you.

Same but…same

Neeye Oli

Irruttu thaandi
Cross the darkness
Elumbi Vaa
Wake up and come to me
Nerruppilla Aadi
Dance in the flames and
Niminthu Vaa
Rise
Oru kutti pattaam poochi pol

Tiny girl. Giant wings.
Paranthu vaa
Come, and fly.

Nee ARR indu navagam irrukka?
Do you know WHO you are?
Ullai parr
Look inside.
Unududya Unmai unnakkulla mattume
Your truth lies inside you
Athai nambi parr
Trust in that, and look
Unudiya veeram
Your bravery
Unudiya mattum illai
Is not just yours
Enguda Eelam vamsam ithu.
It’s ancestral. Eelam lineage.
Unudya ovarru petchu
Every one of your speech
Avangalodda mootchu
Is their unfinished breath.
Ivayalakkaga, nee olumbi vaa
En uyirai thiruppi thaa.
All of us, is all of them
So give me back my life

And let them rise again.

Evalla adithaalum kodumai seythaalum, allika ninaichaalum
No matter how much they try to erase and silence us
Neeye Oli
You are the light
Naan un Malai
I am your mountain.
Inni nee, naan
Now you are me
Inni naan, nee
Now I am you.

I heard my ancestors for the first time by the river clyde
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