A Poetic Introduction
The Part of You That Held It All
She was the thunder that never landed,
the build-up without the breaking.
The room learned her moods
like a barometer pressed to the wall —
but no one ever asked about the storm.
She bore it all:
the grief that didn’t fit,
the fire she had to swallow,
the stories no one had time to hear.
They called her dramatic.
Too much.
But she wasn’t too much.
She was simply
full.
Full of everything
everyone else had set down.
The Storm-Bearer
From the series “The Many Within”
There are parts of us who became weather systems —
built for pressure, made for holding, never meant to break.
The Storm-Bearer is the one within who held it all.
She didn’t cry at the funeral because someone had to serve the tea.
She didn’t yell when the boundary was crossed
because keeping the peace was safer than losing it all.
She carried what was never named,
and when her back ached,
they asked her to smile more.
This is the part of us who absorbs impact —
not because she is invincible,
but because someone had to.
“She doesn’t need fixing. She needs honouring”
We meet her when our body finally shakes,
when our jaw unclenches in the dark,
when tears come from nowhere
and the tightness doesn’t know how to leave.
She doesn’t need fixing.
She needs honouring.
Because what she did —
what she survived —
was not soft, but sacred.
To meet the Storm-Bearer is to reclaim the right to erupt,
without apology.
It is to say:
“I am not broken for having carried too much.
I am beautiful for still being here.”
“I am not broken for having carried too much.
I am beautiful for still being here.”
Reflection Prompts:
- What are the emotional storms I’ve learned to carry in silence?
- What part of me is still waiting to be allowed to shake?
- Where might I offer myself the same grace I’ve given others?
In Tenderness,
A. J. Ashé — Being Human
there’s a name for that weight — and it’s not weakness.
Here are two offerings that may speak to the quiet strength you carry:
- → Dr. Gabor Maté’s “When the Body Says No” — on the hidden cost of being the strong one.
- → The IFS Approach — a gentle way to meet the many within.
Discover more from A. J. Ashé | Being Human
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