How many of you have already heard a number of negative words, thoughts since you got up, and just how are you going to hush those voices? What encouraging words will you be saying to yourself, they say that for every negative word it takes 150 positive words to cancel it out.
We have all heard, said negative things about ourselves at one point or other and I think that we have to daily remind ourselves about the talents and gifts we have within - our words have power to lift up or to tear down. We have a responsibility to be our 'best selves' and by that I mean who we were created to be not who 'man' says we should be.
To explore those ideas, try those skills, learn, expand your mind, travel, write, create, sing, climb, never give up on yourself no matter what age you are. And the more you do it the closer you come to yourself who has a gift to share, a story to tell, an example to be. Don't give up on the 'you' you can become, will become, if you give yourself some room to grow, step out of the boat, - out of your comfort zone. Life hasn't finished with you yet, you are not at your destination and someone in the world, could be half way across the world or just round the corner from you needs to hear your voice. What are you waiting for - go do you!
Mixed Media Art
As I encourage you, I encourage myself,....And Still I rise...
I will leave you with Maya Angelou's Poem. I had the fortune to meet her many many years ago when she graced our bookshop - Grassroots that was based in Ladbrook Grove UK. On the night she signed books, read some of her poems and inspired many.
And Still I Rise..You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may tread me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I'll rise.Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wellsPumping in my living room.Just like moons and like suns,With the certainty of tides,Just like hopes springing high,Still I'll rise.Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops.Weakened by my soulful cries.Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard'Cause I laugh like I've got gold minesDiggin' in my own back yard.You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I'll rise.Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surpriseThat I dance like I've got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history's shame I riseUp from a past that's rooted in pain I riseI'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I riseI riseI riseMaya Angelou
