Mandy Ricks

Blog

  • Dance

    Dance dammit dance.

    Some regrets will never

    have words

    but the rhythm of music

    speaks volumes.

    – Mandy Ricks

  • Setbacks

    A setback is something that happened. It isn’t something you are.

    -Mandy Ricks

  • Kindness

    Just because it’s real
    doesn’t mean it’s right.
    Not every truth
    needs a sharp edge.
    Because kindness grows
    from love.

    -Mandy Ricks

  • The Prince and the pea

    They called him King
    and said
    he was in charge.

    Beside him,
    his companion for life,
    her crown built
    on adultery.

    One brother,
    a pervert.
    The other,
    hardly seen.

    The people shouted,
    Not my King.
    Not my Queen.

    He answered
    like a king:

    Leave me alone.
    I’ll do it
    my way.

    -Mandy Ricks

  • Life gets noisy

    Life gets noisy.

    Everyone has an opinion,

    a warning, a demand, a version of who you should be.

    But don’t let the noise

    Decide who you are.

    -Mandy Ricks

  • Ordinary hours

    Some days, healing looks less like rising
    and more like refusing to disappear.

    There are mornings when the heart wakes slowly,
    still carrying pieces of yesterday.

    Not every battle announces itself.

    Some arrive quietly,
    wearing ordinary hours.

  • Crawl

    If all you can do today is crawl,
    know this:
    your heart will still hold you together
    and guide you
    like an ancient faith that never fades.

    -Mandy Ricks

  • The story doesn’t

    Sometimes, like last night, trauma resurfaces in dreams.

    The monsters are disguised as other people, but they always end up hurting and abandoning.

    Faces change.
    The story doesn’t.

    Different voices.
    Different places.
    The same ache.

    The mind revisits old wounds not because it wants to suffer,
    but because some part of us is still trying to understand what happened.

    Morning comes.
    The dream fades.

    But the truth remains:
    I survived every monster I ever met.

    -Mandy Ricks

  • Running

    I spent years trying to outrun myself.
    Racing, panting, hiding.
    Taking the back roads,
    creating hollow shadows.

    Grasping at survival.

    Moving fast enough
    that the ghosts
    couldn’t quite catch me.

    But what I didn’t know
    was they were wearing my face.

    And sooner or later
    every road ended
    with me.

    -Mandy Ricks

  • Those that walked before us

    Those that walked before us were not heroes.

    Just people trying to survive.

    Some broke, healed, or did a bit of both.

    They carried grief.
    Made mistakes.
    Loved imperfectly.

    Still, they kept going.

    Maybe that is the real inheritance.

    Not perfection.

    -Mandy Ricks

    A few lines from my daughter, EJ.

    “And that’s what makes both sides human

    There was never a battle to be fought

    No lines in the sand to be drawn

    Just two sides of the same coin

    That if they let it, the tide would take and wash away regardless.”

  • Peace

    Peace doesn’t always arrive as happiness.
    Sometimes it arrives as nothing needing to be fixed for a little while.

    -Mandy Ricks

    (with Willow)

  • Shelter

    Peace isn’t always found in grand places.

    Sometimes it’s a small shelter, a familiar view, and knowing you’re safe enough to watch the world instead of run from it—learning that not every battle has to be fought.

    -Mandy Ricks

    Inspired by Willow, (my cat), Chief of Security, Keeper of the Coffee Table Fortress, and Watcher of All Things.

    Willow