We don’t usually publish poetry on B-Change, but when our wise and beautiful staff writer, Shireen Chaya-Mahdi , shared this bit, we knew we had to make an exception. Here are a few verses that will make you feel liberated.

You are a soul.
You were given a body.

A pearl from the heart of an infinite ocean of love,
Given the gift of an earthly journey,

Born out of love,
Drawn to the light.
There was a flash,
There were colors,

Sounds of every kind,
A familiar touch,

A glowing warmth that felt like home,
It was love again.

You are a soul.
You were given a body.

Inside, you carried a mirror
A piece of home,
Your piece like no other,
Your earthly journey a wondrous meeting of the souls you knew well before,

A joining of mirrors so that together the light of love can fill earth,
So that it too can look like the home from where you had come.

You are a soul.
You were given a body.

Your body grew,
At times you forgot,
You thought your body was all there was.

Your mirror caught dust.
You thought you had never known a home before this.

That you were ever a drop in an infinite ocean of love,
The kind that knew no bodies
Only souls.

You are a soul.
You were given a body.

Your body grew until you felt as big as the world.
Your mirror buried under the sands of worldly love,

Of things that can be bought and sold,
Worn and torn,
Eaten and thrown,
And you forgot you were a soul.

There was an emptiness,
It yearned to be filled,

At first it whispered,
You silenced it with things that shone of gold,

Then it called you by your other name,
You turned to masters and gurus,

On pedestals inside a small box,
They tried to sell you pre-packaged souls at the click of a button,
They promised you paradise.

And then the emptiness screamed,
You silenced it with wine of every color,

Drowning it in chanting melodies,
“You are a body
There never was a soul”

And so you cracked open for all to see,
Shared every waking moment,
Searching for other pieces of the mirror that dimly shone,

In those rare dreams that felt as real as your finger tips,
You waited for someone to tell you which moment was real,

Where you fit in the ocean of bodies,
Slated
Rated
Shared
Liked
“What’s on your mind?”
You are a body,
There never was a soul.

But the mirror,
Though muddied beyond recognition,
Brought you aching letters from home,

Reminding you that your earthly journey was supposed to be short,
That you were to enjoy the rising of the sun in different skies,
The songs of the ocean on eternal shores,

The feeling of soil waiting to give birth to rainbows,
And in doing so you were to polish your mirror,
And that of others,

So that together you may light the way,
For everyone to go back home,

So that you can share the stories of when you had a body,
And laugh when you remember,
That you almost forgot

You are a soul.
You were given a body.

Featured Image Artwork: Bhoomika Ghaghada