Quiet Lioness

Lioness observing

I used to think I was always waiting.

Waiting for others to reply. 

Waiting for the right job, the right sign, the right shape of myself.

Waiting for life to give me permission.

And while I waited, I twisted myself into silence, smaller, sweeter, safer.


I called it patience. 

But now I know - it was fear dressed in stillness.


Then something shifted.

It did not arrive like thunder.

It came like a lioness in the sun - quiet, sure, already there.

I saw her in a vision: calm, strong, without proving it.


She wasn't chasing anything.
She wasn't performing.
She was present. Powerful. At ease in her body, in her place.



That's who I've been becoming.
And now I write from that space.
Not to teach, or explain, or impress.
To remind myself that I no longer have to shrink to be safe.
I no longer have to wait to be worthy.



@piri2025