“I am a woman with thoughts and questions and sh*t to say. I say if I’m beautiful. I say if I’m strong. You will not determine my story—I will.” ~ Amy Schumer ? Get unlimited access to all of our best articles: elephantjournal.com/subscribe ? Art: @depressingfridgepoems ? Follow! ?

A post shared by Elephant Journal (@elephantjournal) on Dec 8, 2018 at 7:00pm PST

I know, she’s a lot to behold.

She’s a lot to hold.
She’s messy, she drips with oceans of emotion and spills with pearls of truth,
Her truth.
She utterly overflows with magic.

If you can’t handle her flames and sweetness,
If you can’t handle a woman
Shining in the expansive strength of her wholeness.
If you can’t stand a woman who gets angry, who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, who isn’t hardened to the ways of the world
If you can’t be brought to your knees by the crowned strength of her true glory,
Her everlasting thirst for freedom,
Her passion,
Her sexiness,
Her weirdness,
Her tenderness,
The resounding clarity of her voice.
If you can’t handle her,
then don’t.
Move along.

She deserves someone
who can plunge to the depths
and rise with her
from the fresh, muddy soil of what used to hurt.

If you’re not up to it,
that’s okay.
But I dare you
to feel what it is to behold a woman
Who glistens with petals of alchemy
A woman
Who will not compromise herself.
A woman
Who sings of courage.
A woman
Who challenges you.
A woman
Who knows of trauma and transformation, love and joy, pain and sweet, breathless beauty.

But if you’re really not up to it,
if you can’t handle the storms and softness, the thunder and sumptuous lace,
if you’re not ready—
Move
Along.

Either way, it will not break her.
She’s already been broken a thousand times.
And she deserves a love
that can penetrate her to the shivering core.
She fears not being alone.
Oh, she’d rather be alone than with a lover
who does not know how to hold her.
A lover who is afraid to behold just how fierce, how resilient, how deep, how wise, how fantastic she truly is.

If you want a woman you can mold to your whims
Move along.
If you want a woman who suppresses herself in silence
Move along.
If you want a woman who will make herself withered and small
Move along.
If you can’t handle feeling the salty waves of the sea crash in your heart
Move
Along.

But don’t ever
say
she’s too much.
Because she’s not.

And know, dear lover—
We’re all rising
I feel the roaring heartbeats of so many sisters
So
get
used to it.
Feel the ground shake.
This is your call to
Step
Up.

Your deepest presence is requested.