It Stops With Me

I have carried pain I did not ask for.

Words that pierced.

Silences that stung.

A hundred small betrayals

that taught me to close.


And yet -

I open.


Not because it was easy,

but because I never want another soul

to feel what I have felt.


I do not seek to hurt the ones who hurt me.

Not because they were right

but because I know how wrong it feels

to be unseen, unheard, unloved.


I don’t want to pass that on.

I will not return what was done to me.

I will not wear cruelty like armour.

I will not hand someone else

the burden I have fought to lay down.


Some call that weakness.

I call it choosing peace

over poison.


I do not need revenge

to prove my worth.

Their story ends where I put it down.

Mine begins in every act of softness

I give back to the world.


I will be a quiet rebellion:

a heart that stays open,

a soul that stays soft,

a person who says,

“It stops with me.”


Let the chain break here,

in my hands,

with my heart.


I will not be the storm.

I will be the calm that follows.

The soft place.

The gentle word.

The outstretched hand

when the world has been unkind.


Because I have lived what cruelty does.

And I choose to be

what I once needed.

~ Teri ~