The Secret Garden

Roll into the tumbleweeds, jagged thorns, split thumbs, turn back the clocks and let it all in. Distant memories flitter past, a myriad of broken dreams, a fragment of your imagination- what's left to lose? Snakes writhe as though possessed, bitter chords so sweet and sharp, the taste of blood upon my lips. Vengeance is sweet but honey is sweeter, dripping nectar, Niagra Falls. Acid rain, crumbling gravestones, ash and bone- lets make war. Under the stench of the decaying leaves, the crunch of autumn is a bitter pill to swallow. Go underground, gather your army... in toxic waste are secrets unearthed buried under forgotten lies. Walk into the eye of the storm and give up your soul for a golden chariot awaits you.

In the secret garden, we are puppets of instiutional predjudice, a stifling system that exists to erase free will, where inequality is rife. It is a bitter, twisted world that allows us to culturally apropriate customs that belong to others and yet condemn them in the same breath. In what world is cultural appropriation a rite of passage but to belong to a particular race is a step too many? This is a sad truth that we must face, years of colonial rule have segregated other ethnicities into groups as though they were cattle to be herded. Why must we as humans condemn those who share the same physical characteristics as we do? Is it because we are a mirror of each others flaws? Or are we a product of conditioning, programmed to think and speak like our masters. We must fight for social justice and create not an egalitarian state but an equal vision where men and women stand side by side as equals, where the LGBT community are not treated as abnormalities, where the disabled are not pitied and where we as individuals have the strength to improve our world.

For all those disadvantaged groups, shunned by society in favour of the 'vanilla norm' I will be your voice, let Faded Spring be your guide into a world where predjudice ceases to exist. In my secret garden there are no manipulative secrets, nor is there any hate. There is nothing here but the gentle fade of spring , the crunch of rustic leaves underneath your step. In faded spring I bring happiness and love, there is no war here, all is calm. Together we must fight against oppression, the icy touch of The Secret Garden will be reinvented, all is warm here.

In the stone heart of unrelenting hatred, is a fire within waiting to be ignited, to feel alive once more. Let go of preconceptions regardless of sexuality, ethnic origin, aestheticism or physical difference and remember that normal is boring. I want everyone that reads this post to relinquish labels, we are each and the same despite our biological sex. Biologically a man may share the same genitalia as his fellow man but may identify with the cultural sexualization of femininity and who are we to judge?

One thing that I learnt as an outsider is to accept the notion of 'other'. Just because a person is not wearing the right clothes, is considered as unaesthetically pleasing or shares norms and values that do not correlate with insitutional norms does not mean that they are any less valid or should be excluded. In fact I am drawn to those who are a little 'different' like myself, challenging the social norm to accentuate the validity of their identity in society. I am unique and proudly so, for so many years I was a spectre in the shadows drawn into the light only to be ridiculed like a puppet without free will. Well no more, I will not stand for another lifetime of obscurity.

Follow me into The Secret Garden and let your judgments wash away in the Fountain of Hope, drink pure thoughts in the Well of Salvation and rest in the Canopy of thought, united at once with the other day dreamers. Let your dreams become a reality and create a world where judgement does not exist, where our thoughts are not controlled by our masters. Let the power rest in your hands.

The problem is how do we go about constructing a new, equal world when all we have ever known is rivalry? Let me tell you, strip back to basics and start at the beginning. In the beginning we were united there was no war but a relish for lives simpler pleasures. Capitalism had not been invented yet and gluttony existed only in rare form. What does our world show, debauchery? Contempt for those who rebel against societal constraints? Cynicism towards others that are naturally caring? All of these and more are true and it is the truth that makes us realize how corrupt we really are. Will you wallow in corruption or will you fight for the truth and show the world that you are not just a nobody but a somebody.

So listen carefully my social rebels because the key to The Secret Garden is finally unlocked. Go inside and open the door and discover the truth to rejecting the social norm. I live without labels, I make no judgement and extol homogeniety in favour of letting my own personality shine through.

'The truth is a bitter pill to swallow but it is the truth that will set us free'

Much Love Springbots xox

Photography: Jummana Khanom

Dress: B You Boutique

Shoes: Primark

Bag: Lollipop

Sunglasses: Marks and Spencers