Susan Frybort - Open Passages: Doors and Windows to the Soul

About The Author

S usan Frybort is an American-born poet with a deep fascination for life and the human experience. Writing since she was a child, her poems and affirmations are a tapestry of wisdom and compassion that soften the hearts edges, calling us home. Previously published in Elephant Journal , Vivid Life , and Women for One , she has published two inspiring books. Her first, the poetry collection Hope is a Traveler , was published in 2015 to rave reviews. Hope engages the senses through imagery and metaphor. Her second book, Open Passages , is a special collection of meditations and affirmations that offer soothing balm to the weary soul. Susan is also a skilled tailor and a soft-spoken comedienne. She enjoys rescuing Balinese kittens, eating Vietnamese Pho, watching disaster films, and listening to Arvo Prt. She is a proud mother to her brilliant daughter, Lindsay. Susan currently lives in Canada with her husband, author Jeff Brown.

Acknowledgments

M y deep gratitude to the many people who have joined me on social media to offer me support. You are the stars in the sky I look up to. My wholehearted thanks to Allyson Woodrooffe, whose artistry, skill, and creative brilliance have made this book beautiful. Clara Macri, Kelly McNelis, David Sandum, Ivan M. Granger, Dean Pasch, Chris Saade, Jayananda...thank you for being there for me. Lindsay Taylor, my heart with limbs, my laughter, the light of my life. Thank you for being my daughter and inspiring some of these passages. My thanks to Barbara Boruff and John Frybort, for their unconditional love and affirming wisdom. Robert, thank you for being with me in spirit. And Sophie cat, thank you for listening close as I read you these passages, never once meowing unfavorably.

Above all, I want to thank the love of my life, my husband Jeffrey, for his unwavering support while we put this book together, even in the late hours; for his belief in my passion for poetry and written expression; for his fierce love and for his everlasting encouragement to pursue my dreams.

L ife is not passing you by. Life is inviting you in. Inviting you into the simple and sudden moments of quiet, yet invigorating bliss that veer on the wind and into your stilled body, sending tingles through your spirit. Life is not passing you by. Life is drawing you close. Pulling you in and calling you towards an awakening spark that will ignite the purest of imaginative thought and vision into being. Life is not overlooking you, underestimating you, or merely passing through. Life is subtly requesting you take all youve held safely within and give it room to be birthed into creative expression. No, life has not heartlessly given up on you. Life is graciously standing by.

Light the Way for Love

T hey say beauty comes from a spirit that has weathered many hardships in life and somehow continues with resilience. Grace can be found in a soul who ages softly, even amid the tempest.

I think the loveliest by far is the one whose gentle heart bears a hundred scars from caring, yet still finds a way to pick up the lamp, one more time, to light the way for love.

W hy look for an outward sign
on the gust of the wind,
after a flash of bold lightning,
or by probing the deep and
mystical language of the universe
when the greatest indicators
are already within you?

Under the skin of reason
and past the layers of logic
rests the wise perceptive
bones of your intuition.

Inside the rich body of reflections
weaving clues throughout
your sleeping dreams.

Within the shy flutters and
faint waves of feeling sweeping
through your being,
coaxing you to trust,
urging you to listen, all saying:

Come, retreat to the woods of your own
knowing and follow your inner stream.

I t takes a powerful person to cry out despite those whod prefer the convenience of silence. It takes a fearless person to allow their sadness to come out from the tight box of cultural expectations to be expressed and processed. And it takes a world of strength for that same person to be true to their feelings, own their emotional territoryto walk into the very chaos of its outright messinessand uncover the paragons of victory and joy that were held by them, for such an aching long time, so quietly within.

The Gratitude in Closure

I f you are human, youll discover in life that there are certain events which become suspended in your mind, unsecured and unsettled. While you thought you had progressed, you may not genuinely feel the clear and definite energy around a past relationship or circumstance to suggest an authentic conclusion. The loose ends have not been woven back in any way that makes sense. It does not feel as simple as just letting go . You want to feel recognition, acceptance, and understandingfor yourself and the experienceso it can all be knit together and enable you to grow forth. If and once those final stitches have been sewn to join the remaining pieces, you will feel a new gratitude when coming full circle. Closure is what makes it feel clearer. Closure is what takes you onward with positivity. Though it is not always possible, may you find this blessed completion however and wherever it is so needed. It will allow you to move forward in peace and move gratefully on.

T o reveal the hidden parts of you, however raw, from the private corners of your heart and out into the open takes guts. To allow your ravenous spirit to become uninhibited and soar takes certain bravery.

Love is here for you and has a courage all its own. And you can let the power of what you love guide you to that freedom.

F or one day soon you will step into your own stunning universebeyond the myths, outside any limitations or predictions, far from the illusions this life inventsas you answer the call to uncover the many starlit truths contained inside your incomparable soul. You will be reborn to fresh and glorious revelations only you can carry to completion. And while all the infinite possibilities expand within, may you sing aloud, rejoicing in your new birth, no longer owned by anyones idea of who you should be.

Y oure afraid of changing.
Change tenderly calls for you to open
the places within that have been guarded
with a warriors vigilance for decades.

Change beckons you to come forward and
view the inner landscapes that have been
shrouded in mystery for years.

Change wont offer you promises or
guarantees. But, as the rest of the world
moves along, the pages turn and others go
forth all around, change whispers ,
I am still here and I have not forgotten you .

It is not too late to embrace change.