Drawn To Feel: A Poetic Expression of Love, Loss & Soulfulness

By Irish A.D.

Irish A.D. is passionate about expressing the experiences of life through artistic mediums. She enjoys writing poetry and creative notes, painting, and practicing creative thinking. Irish has experienced the depths of love and loss in her own life. Additionally, in her work supporting people living through grief and trauma, she has witnessed the immense impact of love and loss. As a first time writer, Irish hopes to encourage the value of self-expression. She has brought together her creativity, experience, work, and values to become a writer whose focus is on the power of self-expression.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Nov 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798765244746

Irish A.D.

Irish A.D. is passionate about expressing the experiences of life through artistic mediums. She enjoys writing poetry and creative notes, painting, and practicing creative thinking. Irish has experienced the depths of love and loss in her own life. Additionally, in her work supporting people living through grief and trauma, she has witnessed the immense impact of love and loss. As a first time writer, Irish hopes to encourage the value of self-expression. She has brought together her creativity, experience, work, and values to become a writer whose focus is on the power of self-expression.

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Copyright © 2023 Irish A.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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844-682-1282

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Interior Graphics/Art Credit: Irish A.D.

ISBN: 979-8-7652-4473-9 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-7652-4474-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023915540

Balboa Press rev. date: 10/25/2023

Contents

Why Drawn to Feel?

What Is Drawn to Feel?

Introduction

Thoughts Anyone?

When It All Started

We Are Love

Awareness

Soul Wisdom

Our Decisions

Possibilities

The Control-Free Life

Who You Are to Me

Let’s Mistake It

One Spectrum, Two Outlets

Vulnerability & Surrender: A Gateway to Strength

Creator and Creation

The Divine Inside

Limiting Labels

Immeasurable Beauty

No One Dies

It’s Humbling to Believe in Ourself

What We See and What We Don’t

Minimal & Optimal Living

Endless

Awakened

Ah-Ha!

From Body Through Mind to Soul

One-Soul Consciousness: Gratitude

What Lies Within

The Anatomy of the Duality of Self Model

Broken Dreams – Path to Awakening

Poetic Desire!

Convergence

The Path

Me.

When I Saw You

Love Note

Alive or Living

Sandbox

Faced

Us.

Where Can I be found?

Walking the Path of Joy

We Have Been and

Will Be Again

Far, but Closer

Traveler

Longing

Inside You Is Me

When I See You Again

Under The Shades

Call Of the Soul

Let Thy Live In Love

My Curious Eyesight

Unspoken

Innocence

Away From the Shadows

Along the Brick Walls

Let Me Settle

Lost or Found

A Creative Note!

The One Who Walked Like No Other

It Seems Like a Long Road Home

The Mirrors of Life

The Solitary Life

Death!

Conclusion

Inspired By

Book Recommendations

Dedicated to my father, my grandfather, my

best friend & partner, in spirit, and to those

living with grief on this side of existence.

Disclaimer

The content shared in this book is not intended to provide any advice that should be taken as diagnosis, treatment, or cure of any health conditions. If you are experiencing mental distress, grief, and emotional pain please visit a mental health practitioner for treatment. The use of certain terms, ideas, and opinions in the book may be triggering for some, please read at your own discretion. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held liable or responsible for any distress or damage caused from reading this book and/or from taking anything in this book as advice.

A Message from the Author

Self-expression is a form of art. A uniqueness that exudes beauty of the mind, body, and soul. I humbly pay gratitude to you, the reader, for reading through my emanation of self-expression. The thoughts and messages I share in this book are imaginative, creative, and abstract. The book explores various ideas to understand existence as it is and as it could be. Anything that does not align with you in this book, can be disregarded, only carrying those pieces forward that feel right to you. As I wrote this book, my vision was to ignite contemplation in the reader’s mind when considering ideas of love, loss, and soulfulness.

Why Drawn to Feel?

I began writing this book in 2017, soon after the death of my partner. It has taken me a few years to put this book together because it is comprised of poetic writing grounded in various emotions, which has been a personal journey of growth for me. Throughout my life, I have found artistic forms to be a source of beautiful expression and of wonderous healing. It is a significant method for me to process my emotions in both extremely difficult times and times of ease.

Self-expression is a necessity of survival. When our self-expression is blocked or suppressed, we begin to live primarily in the limitations of the mind and body (missing out on living through the spirit). These limitations can cause feelings of suffering, so my hope is that this book encourages self-expression in all readers. Artistic mediums, such as painting, dancing, writing, or composing, are energetic flows that makes one feel alive. Art can be extremely comforting during times of intense emotional pain.

Self-awareness is a significant topic discussed in this book. Since 2017, I have researched experiences of past-life regressions, near-death experiences (Moody, 1975), mystical events, mediumship, astrology, tarot, religious philosophies, transpersonal psychology, and dreams. At the same time, I have written poetry and created paintings that expressed what I was learning about love, loss, and soulfulness through this research. As I observed and analysed this expression it helped me comprehend the idea of self-awareness and universal awareness as integrated concepts, which I understood as the single term awareness. This book will use the terms self-awareness and awareness interchangeably because an awareness of self, is universal awareness when being viewed through a microscope. The idea of one-in-all, and all-in-one, is the core foundation of everything shared in this book.

Loss is a common and impactful part of many people’s lives, and mine has been no different. I identify as one who has lived through multiple losses, such as death of loved ones and personal health loss. Loss can break us down causing us to feel lost. These feelings can also encourage us to redefine ourselves through the pursuit of self-awareness.

I desire, for readers to be able to deeply connect with the contents of this book. I hope it can bring comfort and perspectives to some essential parts of life, such as love, grief, relationships, and self-expression.

What Is Drawn to Feel?

We are inspired everyday by various aspects of our lives. Inspiration in its most basic form means to have something or someone ignite an idea or the will for action within us, and we use this motivation to help us complete a goal of action that perhaps, could not have been completed otherwise.

Everything in this book is a product of inspiration portrayed through the creative outlet of writing.

Introduction

It’s a thought. I just sat there, like I did quite often, letting my mind fly and take a route that takes me into a peaceful sense of bliss. In these moments, I am stricken with something that comes like an instant message right into my mind. I then stumble and rush to find my notebook and a pen to immediately jot it down, wondering if this one thought could bring me another step closer to the deeper meaning I am seeking.

Thoughts, realizations, and epiphanies are my most prized possessions. I am alive with excitement when I think of something new about life and its workings that I had never thought of before. These ideas comprise together to create my understanding of existence. However, my understanding of existence can be challenged as I am open to and encourage contemplation of ideas and concepts to grow my understanding.

As I envisioned this book, I wanted to bring forward poetic expression that speaks to the soul through metaphors. This is why I have written quotes, poems, and poetic stories, which you will find through the segments named: Thoughts Anyone!, Poetic Love!, and Creative Note!. The first section has 28 quotes, the second section has 27 poems, and the last section has 5 short short-stories. Each section is accompanied by an explanation of the meaning I intend to express, named Intention.

My Thought Process Behind the Writing

What is this statement implying? Any expression of feelings and thoughts made through written, illustrated, or animated form has one perception of the writer or artist and another perception of the one examining this information and formulating their own interpretation. This process involves, what I like to think of as a beautiful dance between meanings and understandings of the presenter and the observer.

Now, this poses a question; what is the correct meaning? Well, it depends on the concept - the more concrete and fact based the concept, the easier it is to find the meaning that is ‘correct’. I am always a little careful with determining what is correct because it limits the possibilities of all that something can be.

If you are a person who appreciates the abstract, and the open ended, flexible things in life, then you will enjoy a lot of what is written in this book because everything can mean what you want it to mean. Often in life we are encouraged to look for the answer, but in this book, we are not looking for any particular answer, rather we are looking for many answers to the abstract concepts of life. Everything in this book is up for open interpretation, and freedom of thought is encouraged. Each idea shared through this book has one main goal and that is to open the vibrancy of thinking and emotional exploration to provide one with opportunities to discover various perspectives.

The ideas presented in the book may resonate well with you and in that case my hope is for you to relate to it and elaborate on it. This book wishes to ignite the readers curiosity through their abstract mind to possibilities beyond the confinement of logic.

The poems and stories written in the book are primarily written with the aim to provide the readers with something to emotionally connect and relate to. I hope you enjoy this read!

Let’s now begin our creative journey together.

Thoughts Anyone?

This section introduces ideas about life, love, loss, and spirituality that I contemplate about to determine if they can help me develop my thinking kit. A well processed and thought-out thinking kit encourages creative thought and enhances our thinking capacity. A thinking kit should comprise of mindful thoughts that raise awareness. Create your own by observing and contemplating ideas that interest you!

When It All Started

"Wherever I go, I