J.A. Steckling
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jasteckling.bsky.social
J.A. Steckling
@jasteckling.bsky.social
55 followers 110 following 100 posts
Author and poet that doesn't like to talk about herself that much. Find more about what I do and where at linktr.ee/jasteckling
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jasteckling.bsky.social
Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr

#caturday #cats
June 1, 2025 at 12:40 AM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Instead of seeing myself as some kind of home improvement project, I'm learning to see myself simply as my home. I've hated myself for too long and tried too hard to be perfect when all I really needed was to see that I'm already enough. 💜

#mentalhealth #perfectionism #jasteckling
A gradient background with text and an image of two keys on a key ring with a house keychain. Text reads, "Instead of seeing myself as some kind of home improvement project, I'm learning to see myself simply as my home." Image by me, J.A. Steckling, also known as Bipolar Beauty on Facebook. facebook.com/thebipolarbeauty
May 31, 2025 at 11:30 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
All our smaller bills are paid, and we are okay on food, but we need help with rent. We still owe 600 for May. I'm not expecting to crowdfund that much, but everything helps right now. My poetry book, I Will Rise, and a piece of flash fiction are both available as pay what you can. 💜 #mutualaid
May 31, 2025 at 9:36 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Another piece of microfiction. I was aiming for a more realistic horror with this one.

#horror #microfiction #writesky #writer
Text reads, "From simple silks to elaborate painted feathers, people hid their true faces. I took a breath and removed my mask, stripping away the flesh beneath, revealing my bare bones. That's why they turned their backs on me, and I finally felt relief. Then they started gathering stones." Microfiction by JA Steckling
May 10, 2025 at 3:19 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
I've been continuing my daily microfiction challenge to help work my creative muscle again 💪 This one is more #paranormal than #horror in my opinion. My friend said it filled her with sadness. What do you think?

#microfiction #writesky #writer
Picture of a lush green forest with a light green text box. Text reads, "As I walked in the woods, I found a mirror. What I saw reflected inside stole my breath. My smile reached my eyes, and much to my surprise, I looked untouched by Death." Microfiction by JA Steckling
May 10, 2025 at 3:15 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Making graphics out of my favorite lyrics is just something I do to keep myself happy. Doing things for no real purpose beyond that feels like a nice break. 💙

🎧 Twiztid feat Str8jaket, Clown
Abstract blue background with solid blue text box. Text reads, "I'm immune to the pain, somewhat insane, but I survive." Lyrics by Twiztid feat Str8jaket, Clown.
May 8, 2025 at 9:24 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
This sums up my life with #bipolar type #schizoaffective pretty well.

#mentalhealthawareness #endthestigma
Picture of a person standing on a mountain top at sunrise. Superimposed text reads, "I exist in the peaks and valleys of my illnesses. Yet, from the top of the mountain, things look so damn beautiful. Even the valleys below don't look as scary as they truthfully are. J.A. Steckling, Why I Stay"
May 8, 2025 at 3:44 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
A familiar struggle for those of us who live with invisible illnesses of any kind.

I am many things. Creative, kind, empathetic, compassionate, intelligent. I'm also a #bipolar #spoonie that struggles with #depression often.

You are not alone. #endthestigma
Torn abstract image of a woman facing a distant coastline with her arm raised to her face. Text superimposed on the sky reads, "I'm in a struggle lookin' to fight for the right to be more than just alright." Lyrics by Twiztid, image is lyric art.
May 8, 2025 at 5:02 AM
jasteckling.bsky.social
You did your best today, and that's enough. ♡

#chronicillness #depression #bipolar #spoonie #chronicpain
Abstract image of a beach with text superimposed. Text reads, "Sometimes, doing the best I can means simply surviving. Today, that's enough." Quote by J.A. Steckling
May 8, 2025 at 4:42 AM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Reposting this one. We're all going to have to do what we can to fight for the world we want. Maybe that looks like spreading love and hope. Maybe that looks like community action. Maybe that looks like something different. However we show up, we need to keep showing up. #poetsky #resist
Image of a bonfire against a black background with white text above. Text reads, "So let that fire burn. Feed it right inside your chest. I want to feel you yearn for the world you think is best. - J.A. Steckling"
May 8, 2025 at 4:15 AM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Reminder that there is still beauty and goodness in the world, and it's worth fighting for.
May 8, 2025 at 12:20 AM
jasteckling.bsky.social
It's just a matter of time til it gets better...

That's one of the things I tell myself when my chronic illnesses or depression are acting up. Eventually, I'll get SOME relief from the unrelenting (physical or emotional) pain. ❤️‍🩹

#chronicillness #spoonie #depression #poetry #poetsky
Image is of a rain cloud dumping rain. Overlaid text reads, "It's just a matter of time til it gets better. That's what I tell myself because I must as rain continues to pour and beautiful things rust. I wait in the storm, getting wetter. Eventually, it'll have to run out of rain. Eventually, I'll get a break from unrelenting pain." Poem is by J.A. Steckling
May 7, 2025 at 11:01 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
A piece of horror micro fiction I wrote a few years ago and rediscovered

#indie #author #horror #microfiction
A black and white photo of a hazy cemetery with a large tree in the middle. White overlaid text reads, "There's a bell ringing in the cemetery across the way. No one has been buried there in over a hundred years. Still - every night someone begs to be let out of their coffin, half-rotten, desperate not to be forgotten."
April 30, 2025 at 2:21 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
It's so beautiful when people can love your shadows as much as your light, the flawed parts of you as much as the radiant ones, the perfect and imperfect pieces that make you uniquely YOU.

#love #quotes
April 30, 2025 at 2:17 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Read more #indie #books and #authors and don't forget to visit your local indie #bookstore tomorrow for Independent Bookstore Day if you are able to do so!

#indiebookstoreday #readers #bookworm
A stack of purple and blue covered books surrounded by pastel flowers and rainbow wings with blue and green text. Text reads, "Let your imagination soar."
April 25, 2025 at 2:45 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Even though this poem says "mind" getting well, it could just as easily say "body" or simply "myself" - life with invisible illness is hard.

#bipolar #depression #anxiety #invisibleillness #chronicillness #spoonie
A gradient gray background with black and purple text. Text reads, "Despite all my persistence, there's this internal resistance to my mind getting well, and I feel like just a shell of the me that used to go the distance." This is a poetry segment from J.A. Steckling (me)
April 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
They say to keep trying and keep doing my best as I struggle to get any joy out of life with combo chronic and mental illness.

Trying is exhausting. They don't see what it's costing me.

#bipolar #depression #anxiety #ocd #chronicillness #chronicpain #spoonie
A mottled white and gray background with black text. Text reads, "Trying is exhausting. They don't see what it's costing me." Quote by J.A. Steckling, from my poem, Exhausted.
April 23, 2025 at 5:34 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
I just love poetry 😍

#poetry #shelsilverstein #masking
A photo of a black opera half mask against a white background next to black text. Text is the poem Underface by Shel Silverstein. Text reads, "Underneath my outside face, There's a face that none can see. A little less smiley, A little less sure, But a whole lot more like me."
April 23, 2025 at 5:31 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Yes, I am a dreamer. I'm loving this quote by Oscar Wilde.

#quotes #litquotes #famousquotes #hope #dreamer
Picture of a blue sky at dawn with black text superimposed. Text reads, "Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can find his way by moonlight and see the dawn before the rest of the world." This is a quote by Oscar Wilde.
April 23, 2025 at 5:26 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Poetry can be a message of love or a message to #resist or anything else that it wants to be. Poetry can be spit to a beat or sung to a tune or recited to a crowd. Poetry can move people to tears or to action.

April is National #Poetry Month here in the US. I invite you to share some with me.
A bouquet of blue tinted flowers and blooms is centered against a dark blue background. Matching blue tinted text reads, "National Poetry Month"
April 6, 2025 at 12:19 AM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Let's talk.
How do you cope with big, negative feelings when you get them?

#mentalhealth #depression #letstalk #endthestigma #semicolon #survivor
A rainy window pane is the background. White script surrounds a glowing white semicolon. Script reads, "My story could have ended many times. I am still here." The semicolon is a symbol embraced by many suicide attempt survivors. It symbolizes that a life, like a sentence, could have stopped; instead, it went on.
April 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
I'm not really interested in meeting my future biggest fan. How about you? 😆 #writersky #writing #author
Dripping blood red text reads "I'm your biggest fan" above an image of Annie Wilkes. Wilkes was the antagonist in Stephen King's novel Misery.
March 30, 2025 at 11:58 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
Sometimes, doing your best means staying in bed to recover. Others, it means kicking ass at what you do. Both have value. You have value.

#quotes #misterrogers
Color swirled image with a blue text box containing white text. Text is a quote from Mister Rogers. Quote reads, "Some days, doing 'the best we can' may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn't perfect - on any front - and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else."
March 28, 2025 at 5:10 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
#chronicillness #chronicpain #spoonie
Image from the infamous sword fight in Monty Python of one knight having just injured the other. Overlaid text reads, "When people tell me I manage my illnesses well: Tis but a scratch." In the film, the other knight replies, "A scratch? Your arm's off."
March 25, 2025 at 4:21 PM
jasteckling.bsky.social
My story very nearly has come to a close several times, but I am still here. As long as I'm here, I'm going to use my voice to speak love into this world and try to make a difference. It's never hopeless. ♡ #survivor #mentalillness #depression #endthestigma #youarenotalone
Image of a rainy window with overlaid text and a semicolon graphic. Text reads: My story could have ended many times. I am still here. The semicolon represents perseverance in the face of severe mental health issues, including attempted suicide.
March 25, 2025 at 4:17 PM