• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Leslie Ralph

  • Welcome Gifts
  • About
    • About
    • Leslie Elsewhere
  • Portfolio
    • Books & Programs
    • Spoken Word
    • Inspiration
    • Art
    • For Children (and the Young at Heart)
  • Contact

Grounding

Wishing you a year of gratitude, insight, and wide-open possibility.

December 29, 2019 By Leslie Ralph Leave a Comment

illustration of four flowers

On the eve of the new year, he stood on his balcony, leaning over just enough to feel it arrive. The promise and forgiveness of the night embraced him. He pictured the aches and worries of the last 12 months scatter in the winter wind and fly away. Only their lessons remained.   He listened to the…

Read More

Filed Under: Clarity, Courage, Expansion, Grounding, Live Free, Live Happy, Love You, Self-Help, Short Stories

Something to tide you over through the doubt. (To rooting for goodness.)

October 1, 2019 By Leslie Ralph Leave a Comment

  Children run and shout outside my house. Bruised knees and sticky hands speak of good sweat and endless summers. Children look out from the tv screen with fear and hunger in their eyes. Some have no shoes, no parents. Some have innocence in them yet. She sings an aria onstage. Her elegant gown sparkles…

Read More

Filed Under: Courage, Good Work, Grounding, Lightness Tagged With: compassion always, compassion heals, goodness, healing the world, self-compassion

This is our story of love and fortitude. (I can’t believe I get to live it.)

September 16, 2019 By Leslie Ralph Leave a Comment

I remember how warm his hand felt wrapped around mine. How safe it made me feel as we crossed the Dublin streets. I remember the way we laughed until we cried as the piano solo began. Front row, center, we tried to hold it in but only laughed harder. I remember the joy and innocence…

Read More

Filed Under: Books, Compassion, Grounding, Love You Tagged With: how to have your back, how to love yourself no matter what, New Book, self-compassion, self-love, show up and pay attention, simple instructions, steps for loving yourself

Open, open, open…you will be soft wonderment. 🌱

September 3, 2019 By Leslie Ralph Leave a Comment

red illustrated flower with text that reads to everything you possibly can, say, you will grow into something beautiful I think

They knew her as Dream Girl, Child of Awe. She lived in the fields just outside town. Gardens surrounded her home, and beyond that a wall with a great door. You could find her balancing atop the wall, listening. Her bare feet felt for familiar stones, ruddy cheeks turned toward the sky. “Feel how soft…

Read More

Filed Under: Compassion, Expansion, Grounding, Lightness, Short Stories, Story Tagged With: compassion always, grow through everything, radical acceptance

Let it all drop 🍃

August 21, 2019 By Leslie Ralph Leave a Comment

Once, I was a falcon, or at least I tried to be. Fast and focused, I was quick to act, quick to think, never a moment wasted. I wanted to fly the farthest and be the most ruthless. I carried with me always a sense of urgency, as if to say, “Look how much I…

Read More

Filed Under: Expansion, Grounding, Live Free, Love You Tagged With: fear, groundedness, how to have your back, pain, self-compassion, self-love

For the serenity, love, and grace in you.

August 11, 2019 By Leslie Ralph Leave a Comment

Serenity, Love, and Grace are my oldest friends. Before I knew their names or understood the magnitude of their tender power, I felt the peace and strength their presence gave. These dear, old friends taught me the art of looking and listening inward. In watchful stillness, they stand sentinel over me today, waving me back…

Read More

Filed Under: Grounding, Lightness, Love You Tagged With: inner peace, radical acceptance, self-compassion, serenity

Love what you love, small as it may be (and shine that love on the world)

August 5, 2019 By Leslie Ralph Leave a Comment

  It’s the little things that can sink me, but it’s the little things that save me, too. Little, fleeting things, details and outcomes and misunderstandings can make me feel so small, almost as much as the big things do. When I look at what I’ve torn or chipped, stained, spilled, or burned underneath, it’s easy to see the worst in…

Read More

Filed Under: Grounding, Love You

This is what I trust above all else

July 28, 2019 By Leslie Ralph Leave a Comment

Love yourself, come what may. When it comes to suffering and healing, this is the path I trust above all else. It’s the foundation of my writing, the first step in my clinical work, and the lesson I keep learning myself. If it were that easy, I’d leave it at that. Love yourself, come what…

Read More

Filed Under: Books, Expansion, Grounding, Love You, Words

They say there’s a reason we’re here

July 22, 2019 By Leslie Ralph Leave a Comment

They say the stars have consciousness. Do you think they dream? And what of? Do they search for us in the sky to wish upon? I wonder how many of our midnight confessions they’re keeping secret. They say the trees talk to each other. Do they dance together in the monsoon? And do they tell…

Read More

Filed Under: Expansion, Grounding, Lightness, Words

The Love That Sustains You

April 9, 2019 By Leslie Ralph Leave a Comment

Standing on the corner of a busy city street, a quarter caught his eye. He bent to pick it up as people rushed past. “Drums!” he exclaimed as he turned the quarter over and found a drummer boy standing in the eagle’s place. He pressed the quarter into his palm and smiled at a passerby. All…

Read More

Filed Under: Grounding, Lightness, Live Happy, Short Stories, Words Tagged With: awe, beautiful heart, centered, giving thanks, gratitude, grounded, short stories

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 5
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I’m Leslie!

I'm a writer and artist on a mission to leave this world a little brighter than I found it. Read More…

you may have seen me on:

Simple Instructions for Loving Yourself

Poetry & Meditation for Inner Peace

A Shop for your Beautiful Heart:

NEW: Written Collection

NEW: Love Free Flowers poster from Love, Child. Love.

NEW: Goddess Poster

Spread Good

Copyright © 2025 — Leslie Ralph • All rights reserved. • Privacy Policy