Overflow

Mini-essay curated by Annette Fleur de Lis

If you truly desire what’s on the other side,

you will have to walk through what your ego avoids.

We often confuse understanding with knowing.

The mind can dissect, accumulate, perform insight —

but only the body holds the truth.

Knowledge begins the moment it is felt.

Felt in the burn, in the tension, in the surrender.

I used to think egoism was about putting yourself first.

But egoism is, in fact, the desperation to fix another —

to be needed, to be useful,

to be loved for the emptiness you try to hide.

And narcissism?

It’s not the demon we fear.

It is the sovereign fullness of a woman who gives

only from overflow.

Not to prove her worth.

But because she remembers it.

This is the difference between sharing and sacrificing.

Between appearance and essence.

Between performance — and truth.

I no longer force love.

I radiate it from the inside out.

— Annette Fleur de Lis