Do I inspire ? I have no clue. All I know is that I will continue to be this raw, unfiltered, naive, wise, brave, risky, foolish, spontaneous, creative, eternally curious, quick, inventive, endlessly hopeful, deeply sensitive, fiercely vocal, loyal and loving creature, rising more times than I fall, in a balanced and permanently and finally at peace state, in love with life and it's possibilities, with a sense of the fragile vulnerability of mortality. I do not know any other way of being, of faking. Of doing.

If i could continue to be this till my last breath even if I falter at times, I would consider having attempted to live owning my own skin for most parts. That for me, is the only journey there is. As I age, I am learning to own this gratitude of being, better and better. With more awe and self-love. More understanding of the privilege of being alive. Of what being me is like. Without apology or trimming down.

I am also slowly learning to offer people what they can take, and receive what they are comfortable to give instead of demanding more from them or offering more of myself than they need to receive. This strange barter seems to lend more peace ensuring that only the rare few get, ask and receive more as earned privilege on both sides.

In a world that tames women, cuts them to size, cramps their ambitions, stifles their identity, labels their many dimensions ... Inspite of every attempt and situation to kill my spirit, after literally dying a few times to reach this stage of ease in my skin to be, I am at the rare privilege of being able to tell the tale. With joy. I am just learning to understand what that feels like. It is still sinking in. The enormity of being resilient in a vast ocean of drowning.

If in any manner, the journey inspires anyone even in a small way, it puts a certain purpose to one's journey. It gives a certain meaning to why you have reached this far.

Do I inspire ! I have no idea.

But I do know that if there is something in me that inspires you, there is going to be something in you that will inspire me, for we are all nothing but mere sparks to light each other. It takes one to know one.

- SS