You've been through the fire, 
watched the old version of yourself crumble, 
and from those ashes, you built 
something sacred. 
Not a peace that was given to you, 
but one you had to bleed for,
fight for, 
and pull from a chaos that tried
to swallow you whole. 
This is your peace, earned through
the storm, 
crafted by hands that refuse to break. 

This sanctuary?
It's yours, a place where love runs deep, 
where your energy is untouchable, 
and no one with reckless hands gets to step inside. 
Let them spin in their own storms; 
those whirlwinds belong to them, 
not you. 
You? 
You're moving to the rhythm only love understands, 
a calm so fierce it makes storms hesitate. 
You've earned every bit of it. 

Peace isn't just the absence of noise. 
It's clarity, like the stillness before a thunderclap, 
or the quiet breath of the earth
before it wakes. 
Peace is knowing who deserves access and 
who gets the door quietly closed. 
It's being so deeply rooted in the 
heaven you've created
that the chaos outside doesn't even touch you. 
This peace? It's your masterpiece, 
and you?
You're its guardian. 

The truth is-
not everyone can hold space for the kind of
love that lifts you higher. 
Not everyone can stand in the 
presence of a heart that beats steady, 
one that knows its worth 
without having to shout. 
Let them run, let them fall, 
but never shrink yourself to 
fit into a space you've outgrown. 
This is the kind of peace that 
Siddharta found beneath the Bodhi tree, 
the kind of ancient travelers found in the dessert, 
where the stars guided them without a sound. 

Peace is the ultimate act of love, 
for yourself, 
for everything you've built, 
for the people will feel that pulse of truth in your presence 
and recognize it. 
These are the ones who belong here. 
The one who can stand in your stillness
and know that love doesn't always roar-
sometimes, it's in the quiet that 
you hear it loudest. 

So protect it. 
Not because you're hiding, 
but because you've arrived. 
And where you stand now? 
Nothing from the past can 
pull you back. 
The one who belong in this space will find you. 
The ones who don't? 
let them drift. 

This peace?
It's untouchable, 
just like the love that built it. 
And now, so are you 

*Branden Collinsworth