Ten Minas

a positive heart

 

I’m not sure when it happened or how it happened but I’ve been receiving many compliments lately for having a positive heart. Strangers are coming up to me in social settings and commenting how hopeful my view on life is. The shower me with many compliments, pointing out my fabulous sense of humour and the way I see good in everything.

It took some time, but I no longer get embarrassed by their kind words. I have learned to humbly accept them as gifts. There are moments where I still don’t believe them, but I am learning to be grateful and just say thank you.

I can’t say I’ve ever been overly pessimistic. Sure, I dabbled in it, but who hasn’t? I also admit that I have gossiped on occasion and have enjoyed the art of sarcasm, but I don’t believe I was ever a true cynic. Not in the truest sense of the world. I don’t believe I have ever disgraced myself as much or have ever flown so low.

I have very little interest in who I used to be. The man I used to know, did not have an ounce of energy I carry with me throughout the day, nor did he ever wake up with so much pep and purpose in the morning.  

I have somehow grown and harvested a very positive heart.

A positive heart is not something you’re just born with. It’s something you have to build and grow.

There was a time, not so long ago, when I took my talents for granted. I have been shy and lonely my whole life. Being prickly and judgemental was a way I could protect myself against critics and hide away from the world. It worked but the cost I bore has been too great. 

In my shyness and loneliness I neglected and ignored my love of writing. I focused on the wrong things. I never thought any of it was important. I felt I wasn’t good enough. I never took the time or cared to nurture my writing. 

I certainly never felt compelled to share it. Not like now.

Throughout my life many people have been encouraging. They tried to show me the greatness that lied dormant deep inside of me. They were very nice, but it was me who kept stubbornly looking down at my feet. It was me who pretended he wasn’t good enough. I lied that I couldn’t. Shouldn’t. It was me who hoped that if I only waited patiently enough, long enough, that eventually, somewhere, someone, some benevolent benefactor, would peer deep inside my heart and hand me my dreams.

Little did I know there are no benevolent benefactors.

Little did I know that the person who would see deep inside my heart would be me.

Having a positive heart is not easy.

It is not an investment. It is something that you can lose or win at any time.

I am not really sure what has happened to me. All I know is that I’ve never felt such tremendous joy or enjoyed such an overwhelming sense of living.

It’s hard to be negative when your eyes are open, you surround yourself with like minded people, you focus on the good in the world.

I’m not blind to the darkness.

I know its there.

I know it waits and relentlessly pursues us.

But.

It will not pursue us any less if we choose to be negative.

So its much better to be positive.

Much better to be hopeful.

Much better to grow a positive heart.

 

strength in weakness

 

What it means to be strong and weak has been terribly misunderstood by many.

We have come to adorn the first and shun the other.

We have learned to flaunt our strengths like peacocks and we do our best to hide our weaknesses like a rapidly spreading disease.

But why?

Being good at something is clearly better than not being good at something. There is no denying that, but there is something missing here. What is hidden in all this, is how embarrassing it feels to be wrong, how preconditioned we are not to try new things, and how vicious we are with one another when we don’t get things right.

Real strength. True strength, lies in our ability to choose to do something. 

You may feel like driving your fist through someone’s ugly face because they deserve it, and they probably do, but being able to do so also gives you the power to grant them mercy. You can’t grant mercy, if you’re incapable of fighting in the first place. Knowing how to use your fist gives you the power to do so or not to do so. You have the ability to choose to do so, or not to do so.

The same can be said about human weaknesses.

There is strength in our weakness.

When we find ourselves confronted with the inability to do something, we have a choice to be either subjected to that weakness or to openly rage war against it.

We have choose to give in, or brace ourselves.

Sometimes this decision takes seconds.

Sometimes we flop about it, like a sunfish, fighting for her life on a hot wooden dock.

Strength and weakness both have the same noble mother and our happiness depends on getting them right.

Peace is not the absence of war. 

If you are unable to kick ass, you don’t really have the power not to kick ass. You cannot give what you don’t have. You cannot withhold what you don’t have in the first place. It is therefor important to grow and develop your talents to their fullest. But being good at something doesn’t mean you have to yield it over someone else.

If you can sing like an angel, that doesn’t mean, when you’re in a room, that you need to drown out everyone else's voice, who is trying to sing also.

There is room in this world for everyone. 

There is a stage for anyone.

There is a great need for birds of all skill levels to have their turn. To have their voice heard. The world needs more music. The world needs more voices. Of all shapes and sizes. Far more than it needs gossip, conflict, and war. Far more than it needs the voice of but one angel.

Take courage in your weaknesses.

Weakness offers you great strength.

A strength that comes from knowing what it means to be weak.

A great tenacity of spirit in knowing you’ve overcome something.

There is a great need today not to be afraid to show those we meet our vulnerability.

We must not hide our weakness.

We hide far too much, and what makes us weak has such great power to unite us to one another.

It is important that we see each other bleed. 

On the inside. 

So we don’t raise our fist against one another.

There is great strength in weakness.

There is untapped potential in getting it wrong.

In being wrong.

Don’t be afraid of your mistakes.

Believe in your yourself.

Be strong, despite being weak.

 

there is no one like you

 

There is no one like you.

There never was, and there never will be.

You are kind of a big deal.

We all are. 

Every single living that that flies, walks, swims, or crawls around somewhere.

You might roll your eyes at this silly idea or perhaps cringe a little. You are probably most used to deflecting many genuine compliments that come too close for comfort. Maybe you’ve become so deaf that you don’t even hear them anymore. 

You are good at changing the subject, when it comes to understanding what you are truly worth. You change the subject pretty quickly. You get uncomfortable when someone describes your uniqueness or points out the triumphant singularity of your fingerprints.

Experience has taught you that your life is so very ordinary.

Your life’s work and your daily contribution feels very average. On a good day. 

Sometimes, it all just feels like nothing at all.

Like pissing in the wind.

But despite how you feel, despite what you think, there is no one like you, and the world has been blessed because you are n it.

I wish every person would believe that. 

I wish they wouldn’t look down at their feet when they walk. I wish they would make eye contact and say good morning to one another. I wish they would strike up a conversation, on their morning commutes. I think their day would go better. Their day would be brighter. Their lives would be far more meaningful. 

I wish we were all very tired from the right things.

Tired from giving too much. Instead we feeling exhausted by hiding ourselves and pretending that very little of what we do actually matters. 

Sure, we are great pretenders.

Everything is always fine until it isn’t.

And it sometimes never was to begin with.

We have a tough time with truth.

You and I both have our hang ups. 

We have a lifetime of failures and strings and strings of mistakes. 

We have painful regrets. Memories of paths not taken. Roads that are too well travelled, but which in hindsight should have been abandoned long ago.

We have our addictions and our own share of conflicts. 

Sometimes we question everything.

Sometimes we fail to see meaning in anything. 

We sometimes fall to our knees and question our very existence. 

There is no shame in any of that.

This whole irony of being born just to die is pretty darn confusing.

It hurts like hell when you are crying at a funeral and life feels so good when you have couple of drinks in hand. Shaking your thang. Doing your thing. Waving your hands like you just don’t care.

Yes. There is no one like you.

No one.

No doubt about it.

Wether you believe it or not. It doesn’t really matter.

Facts are facts.

You’z all we’ze gotz!

Maybe you should act like you matter sometimes.

All the time.

Maybe its time you embrace a lifetime of new possibilities.

Maybe its time to dream again.

Perhaps you should get to work on some of the silly things you started when you were younger.

Maybe there is nothing silly about any them at all.

Maybe the silly part is you, not believing in yourself.

There is no one like you.

I hope you waste no more time trying to prove otherwise.

 

try not to follow

 

Trust yourself.

Believe in yourself.

Follow your heart.

I know its hard. 

Very certainly uncertain. Full of pitfalls and fraught with failure.  

It’s a hell of a lot easier to follow the herd. Much simpler to just follow along. A lot safer to do what is expected you. But that will only drag you to places where you’d rather not go, surrounded by people you’d rather do without. 

(And they might smell).

So follow your heart, not the insistently bleating herd.

Or at least pick the right shepherd!

I know how this all sounds.

It seems very poetic, but its not meant to be.

Consider this a cold, hard invitation to a new life of possibilities.

A chance to lead instead of follow.

A chance for a meaningful existence.

A call for a reflected life.

A well lived life.

A happy life.

Following your heart and believing in yourself will be a daily struggle. 

A continuously raging conflict. A war against comfort and complacency.

Trusting yourself demands change and transformation and if  you don’t, you’ll return to your old scripts and the boring stories that you tell yourself.

You are full of stories.

Stories about who you are. What you can’t do and why you can’t do it.

Stories about who’s hurt you. Stories about who you’ve hurt.

Tall tales you’ve accepted as true in your early childhood. Scripts that were pre-written for you, old worn out scripts, and some that you helped to co-create yourself. But none the less, stories that don’t serve you any longer. Truths you’ve come to learn at school, in the playground, and in your heart.

You learned that its a tough old world out there. That statistically speaking, you’re bound to be a victim of some mindless crime, or some random casualty of an unfortunate accident. 

You’ve learned about the dangers of sex. About divorce. About death. Abuse. About cancer. About bullies. About getting fat. About keeping your hand down, so your classmates don’t label you a teachers pet, or that you never have to feel the sting of getting the question wrong. So you can avoid failure and shun mistakes. 

So you can pretend that everything is perfect.  

You’ve learned that there are no dumb questions, but you can’t avoid seeing that there are dumb people who pose them. 

So its much better to play safe. Its better to stay quiet. To bleat quietly, and only when called upon.

Through it all, you’ve learned that no matter how good you are, how hard you try, how successful you become, there is always someone better than you, so whats the point?

That exactly the point.

You should follow your heart because life is a chorus, not a lead performance.

As a human race, we are much better together, united, than we are isolated and alone.

We are better living in the open, than we are when we run and hide.

There is no enough music out there that can reach every ear.

So share yours.

There is not enough good ideas either.

So share those too.

There is not enough kindness out there.

So be kind.

There is not enough of anything.

So everything. No matter how small makes a big difference.

You can make a difference.

Perhaps not to the many, but certainly to the few. 

Sometimes you will only matter to only one.

So trust yourself.

Believe in yourself.

Share yourself.

Follow your heart.

Write a new story.

Sing a new song.

Live a new life.

Lead.

Try not to follow.

 

where your future hides

 

Your future hides in the present.

In this very moment.

Understanding the future is a somewhat tricky and ambiguous business.

What is to come is always able to hide in open sight precisely because we fail to gaze upon her. We end up looking right through her

We mistakes our dreams and think of what is to come, as some kind of indication of what our future will look like and we resign ourselves to living our lives and murmuring, some day.

But our future. Our dreams. The vision and blueprint of who we really desire to be and what we long to have, is right here. Hidden in the present moment.

Your future that you see in your minds eye is not so much an indication of what is going to come, as it is a call to do what needs to be done. Done right now. 

If you’re like me and dream of being a writer or an artist, you imagine being able to make a living by connecting with readers and helping them leap forward. Helping them leap into being who they are sometimes afraid of becoming. Helping them to imagine the possibilities and not being scared of who they are meant to be.

Your dreams have definitely something to do with the future, there is no denying that, but they have so much more to say about where you find yourself today and what your next steps should be at this present moment.

If you see yourself travelling the world one day. When you find the time. When you retire. When you have saved enough money, you should definitely pack your suitcase this weekend and begin to travel right now. 

That is perhaps a bit too much hyperbole but you should definitely do it soon. Do it before you retire. Find the time. Do it before you have all the money because when you’re older, you will have new dreams. You will find yourself a bit wiser and older, you may find yourself to be a touch tired, hopefully not unwell, and perhaps having the time of your life looking after your grand babies. 

When that day arrives that you dreamt of, you may have found yourself a whole set of dreams altogether.

Your dreams are for right now.

They are an indication of what you want today.

You don’t have it, but that doesn’t matter. 

Your ideas of things to be are trying to tell you what you need to do.

If you want to be a writer, go and continue writing. If you want to open a restaurant, go make meals for your family every day, like they were your first customers.

If you want to run a marathon, go outside and try to at least make it all the way to the mailbox. Tomorrow, try to double the distance.

If you are lonely and want to be in love, go take a shower, dress yourself up and go out to a place where there are likeminded people. Your future lover is not going to accidentally bump into you. You have to go out and find them.

Accidents happen, when you’re living with purpose.

You’ll get lucky, after you’ve done all the work.

Let your future be your guide. 

A blueprint of what needs to be done.

Today.

Right now.

Not tomorrow.

Not someday.

This day.

If you’re waiting for permission to begin, begin. If you’re wondering if you’re good enough, you are good enough.

Listen to your dreams. Don’t look past them.

Embrace them.

 

it's never too late to fly

 

I want to fly.

There’s no doubt in my mind now.

Not anymore. Not now.

I want to fly, and my dreams have been gloriously reawakened.

It has taken me far too long to think it through. It has taken far too long to embrace. Thankfully, however, I am fortunate, that there is plenty of time to see it through.

I want to fly.

No doubt about it.

Having never flown before, I am well aware of the risks. Even if I wasn’t, there are many kind, or seemingly kind people, who are willing to point those dangers out to me. To discourage me and you for that matter, from flying too close to the sun. From dreaming. From trying. From living an vigorous life, instead of watching from a distance. A life of timid but safe observer.

After almost five decades of listening to people, you get to a point in your life where you stop caring about the risks. You stop giving some rats behind about what people say. Stop caring about the seemingly inevitable calamities that lie in wait. How embarrassing it will be. How humiliated you will feel.

You begin to trust and use the wings that you were born with. You become empowered by them. You marvel how they have grown in strength over the years, despite the fact that they have never seen high winds.

You begin to anticipate and dream about your moment.

The moment when you excitedly nudge yourself forward, toward the precipice of possibilities. Hoping you will not change your mind. Hoping for the beautiful things to come. Hoping you won’t waste any more time and will now, right now, summon the courage to leap.

You should fly too.

Fly towards your dreams. Fly to places of unseen opportunities. Fly with people you would otherwise never have a chance to meet.

After all, you’re not flying away from something, but to the contrary. You are flying towards something. Something new. Something meaningful. Something absolutely magical.

Staying grounded is safe and comfortable.

But you were not built for safety and comfort.

You are governed by powerful inner voices, for sure, like your conscience, so that you don’t do anything truly stupid (anymore), but outside of those few mishaps during those college years and beyond, you were always meant to be great.

You were meant to be a force to be reckoned with.

And you can’t cause trouble, walking around, half asleep or semi awake, definitely fully confused, waiting for a sign, hoping for a push, and being content with so very little.

So, come fly with me.

Ignore the dangers of flying too close to the sun and realize the agony of flying too close to the ground or not flying at all. Of giving up, and not making any effort to share your gifts with others.

I will fly alone, but I prefer some company.

The sky is a big, majestic space, full of infinite possibilities.

With room for everyone.

But those possibilities won’t come to you. You must come to them.

I feel sad and nauseated because I haven’t leapt before. I wasn’t willing to work hard enough, long enough, and I quit way too early, before I could embrace my dreams. But as despondent and stomach-churning as this reality is, I think it would be unforgivable and indefensible, to believe that it’s too late for me now.

It would be unforgivable and indefensible for you too.

Time moves forward and for this reason it is never too late.

Never too late to let go of our fear.

Never too late to ignore the negative chatter that binds us to our insecurities.

Never too late to begin.

Never too late for courage.

Never too late to leap.

Never too late to fly.

 

don't worry

 

Don’t worry about tomorrow, because it will come and go, like yesterday, and the day before.

Don’t worry about yesterday, because it’s gone. It has come. It served its purpose. It is done.

So, worry about today.

Right here. Right now.

Today.

Take today and live meaningfully. Live deeply, because it’s a moment full of infinite possibilities. It’s a day like no other, brimming with promises and whispers of glorious things. Things you just can’t get at tomorrow. Things you can only and must get at today.

You have a bit of time. So, take advantage of it.

Time is at your service.

Time is your secret weapon because it will not be here tomorrow. For tomorrow, you will reap what you sow, and gather what you plant today.

That’s a lot of flowery words, you might say.

Perhaps, but what do you expect with all this planting and reaping that you’re doing?

I just don’t know a better way to illustrate the importance of getting at something today. And I don’t mean just getting at it but working it with purpose. Dreaming with tenacity. Planning and executing with tremendous determination and focus.

You say you want things, but yet you are unwilling to fight for them.

You say you’re tired, but you’re wasting what needs to be done today. To do something, anything, so that you are but a dash and a pinch of purpose ahead of where you were yesterday. Which might leave you less tired. More invigorated.

You’re afraid to fail but who isn’t?

You’re afraid to make mistakes because deep down you’re worried what people, the same people who have long ago given up their own dreams, might think or say.

Don’t worry about those people. They don’t worry about you and they won’t be there tomorrow. They imprison themselves in their many regrets of yesterday.

You say you need a bit more time, but time is all you have. At least today. At least for a little while longer.

You say you’re not good enough, but you’ve wrongly assumed we have someone else. You’ve wrongly wished we would find someone else to replace you.

There is no replacement.

You’ve all we’ve got.

And we’re glad.

You’re irreplaceable. Unrepeatable and unique.

Stubborn at times? Yes.

Crotchety for a period of time? Absolutely.

With a dirty mouth to boot, when there’s no call for it? Perhaps. On occasion. Yes.

You are who you are.

That is no great matter for concern. We’re ok with it because only you can do what only you can do.

Warts and all. Imperfect as you are.

You make us laugh. You make us cry. You make us think and dance.

You contribute a great deal of meaning to our life and it stings when you brood and worry about tomorrow.

It will hurt when if hide yourself today or on any other day.

So, don’t hide from us. Don’t retreat. Abandon. Forget. Imagine things that are simply not true.

Don’t worry about tomorrow.

Quickly forget the mistakes and failures of yesterday.

Embrace today.

Only worry about today.

Worry about this moment.

Go and do something only you can do.

Until we meet again, my friend.

Have yourself the very best day.

 

your best work

 

Most of us flinch and hesitate.

We habitually waver, especially when it comes to making our best work. The insistent noise coming from the outside world is never warm and fuzzy. The keyboard warriors are always looking to spill some blood, but that only accounts for a small part of the truth. What is more telling is the fact that we are our own saboteurs. We are responsible for some pretty nasty maneuvering. We go to great lengths to hide away from the world. We are our worst critic.

We constantly compare our ourselves to others. We needlessly match our gifts against those of others. We overthink things and micro analyze our motivation, including the technical execution of the work we do. We always try to sniff out if it’s any good.

This leads us to a whole bunch of nothing. Nothing, because we rarely share anything meaningful we’ve created with strangers. We only offer a little sneak peak, to friends and family, and nothing more.

We keep perpetually revising and reediting. Hiding. Destroying. Hiding some more. Starting again, from the beginning.

We are never done.

Yet our best work, is our finished work.

This is so important.

A half-baked apple pie is not a pie. A bunch of disconnected chapters of a book, does not a novel make. A sweater with only one arm, is somewhat under warming.

As a society, we have become somewhat accustomed to always being in the middle of something. Not quite there but too far in to go back. Afraid of the consequences. Afraid of what people will think. Afraid that we’ll be discovered for the fraud that we think that we are.

But its our finished work that matters.

Our finished work is our best work.

It is our best work, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. It doesn’t mean we will receive praise and a purchase order, it only means that its fit for human consumption, or for wearing out in public. The praise and the accolades are bound to come later.

Our finished work is our best work because in it lies our courage to let people see what we’ve made and who we are. We dared to contribute to the mosaic of human conversation.

It takes great courage to share your work with the world.

And only in sharing can you hope to receive meaningful feedback.

Perhaps not right away.

Yes, the keyboard warriors will most certainly be first to sling some mud and vile words in your direction. It’s not personal. Without the mud or the slinging, they might actually have to do something constructive with their lives. They might have to create something, and this scares them to no end. They find false comfort in the war of words, by imagining the world needs to be protected from itself.  

In time, meaningful feedback will come.

Your best work, if you dare to finish it, will receive some meaningful criticism. Criticism that will help you make your next work better. You’ll have time and the experience to bake a better pie. Or to add a sleeve to your sweater. Or to develop a more complete and memorable story.

You have to finish something.

Gather up all your half-baked and forgotten ideas and get to work.

Don’t stop till you’re finished.

Don’t listen to yourself.

And don’t forget to share.

 

graceful silence

 

Being silent is not easy.

Finding the time for it is one thing, but summoning the courage to face yourself, in your disjointed mind, is something else. But ignoring yourself and avoiding silence all together, is even worse.

Embracing and surrounding yourself with all this noise, for long periods of time, is an unnecessary burden. A burden you need not carry. A type of metaphorical sea weed, that entangles you, ensnares your mind, and pulls you to the bottom. Lulls your life into a comfortable non-existence.

It’s a subtle form of theft. An undetectable act of robbery. For noise steals your daily chance to get in touch with who you are, why you’re here, and where you long to be. And this subtle, permit able theft and unapologetic act of thievery, often bears terrible and devastating consequences.

But I guess those who know better might be right.

There is nothing wrong with avoiding silence, and bathing in the petulant sea of sound.

You can, in fact, I guess, still hope to discover who you are, why you’re here, and where you want to be, without silence, but I would caution you, about the quality of your research.

I would caution you about the somewhat disjointed vision of yourself that you’ll discover, when the whole world is talking at the same time.

It is hard to hear the quiet voice within, when you’re pressured to respond to the booming gongs, and deafening drums, running unbridled, outside.   

You should really question your thoughts and feelings. They may be broken. Distorted. Disjointed. Angry.

Don’t worry about your freedom of speech but concern yourself with the freedom of thought instead. Especially when you find yourself at the mercy of the impenetrable wall of noise.

Noise.

Not all noise is terrible.

Sometimes noise can be a beautiful thing, but even beautiful, very purposeful clamour, in the end, only distorts and distracts us from ourselves. It lulls us to sleep. Numbs our senses. Whispers that everything is fine, when it’s not. Reassures us that it will all be better tomorrow.

That is if you let noise imprison silence.

Silence is not easy.

It can’t be controlled or manipulated. It won’t be ignored or discarded. It screams loudly and insists on change. On growth. On some kind of purposeful living.

The good silence does, at least. The bad silence, is just noise, that has found a way in, uninvited.

If you don’t like yourself or perhaps hate yourself, deep down, in the stillness of silence, you will hear yourself, accuse yourself, of some heinous things.

You will witness stormy fits of anger, outbursts of tearful regret, gusts of indignation, and paroxysms of self-pity.

Silence is not easy.

At first you will want to run. Find your way back to the comfort of noise. And minutes will feel like hours. Hours will feel like days. It will all seem impossible. A mythologically made up impossibility.

In time, however, it gets easier.

In time, in fact, silence becomes very beautiful.

You’ll begin to crave it. Treat it like a secret love affair. Check into hotels with it, under an assumed name. You’ll keep it a secret. Deny its existence. Desire its company.

A day will come when you’ll finally get tired of throwing insults at yourself. You’ll take a little break, and begin to see your undeniable human dignity, and start to plan the rest of your life.

You’ll discover memories and dreams that have been dormant for way to long. You’ll embrace talents you have hid away or long denied, for fear of laughter.

With a little bit of silence, and in time, you’ll come to understand you purpose.

You’ll understand the meaning for your life.

You’ll see past the noise.

You’ll see yourself.

Not as you’re seen, but as you truly are.

false humility

 

You’re as humble as they come. Humble to a fault. But at least you’re not like those other people, who are thumbing their way into heaven.

You’re different.

Special.

A realist.

Prone to sudden and unexpected gusts of optimism. Rare indeed, I agree, this optimism of yours, but with all the talk about climate change these days, how could you be any different?

You take great pride in knowing the truth. In understanding the world for what it is and as it happens. Unflavoured. Unseasoned. Just as it is.

You won’t listen to anyone. Because you already know.

You know exactly why you’re so miserable. Unsuccessful. Always tired. Pushing that heavy rock up the mountain.

You learned a long time ago that people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They’re just lucky. They’ve been given all the breaks. Given all their talents, while you were left wanting.

Unfairly.

Forgotten.

And they those people have armed themselves with a cunning ability to lie and seduce others, in order to get their way. To get what they want and couldn’t possibly deserve.

You’re different.

You won’t stoop to their level. You know you’re worth.

Your false humility won’t let you see the world the way others see it.

You’ve struggled. You’ve overcome much. You paid your dues. Faced adversity head on. Kicked life right in the balls.

You deserve so much more. So much more.

You can’t understand why things haven’t worked out. Why you’re not rich and famous. Why people are constantly blind to your genius and your ingenuity.

This baffles you. Frustrates you. Angers you, if we may be honest.

But through it all, you remain your quiet, hidden. Your best humble self.

And for what?

Is it worth holding on and dying with your illusions?

Is it important to be right?

To refuse to accept change?

You’re so afraid to fail.  You fear your future and you cry yourself to sleep, as you look back and can’t help but regret the past.

If you don’t mind me saying. Your ass is so wound up so tight, that with a decent lump of coal, and in a few unspoken minutes, you’re able to produce the world’s purest diamond.

You have so much potential.

So much knowledge.

You’re endowed with so much inner and outer beauty and grace. So much life and love yet to give, yet you abandoned your dreams long ago, by the side of the road, like a smoked, unwanted, discarded cigarette.

You need some divine arrogance in your life.

You need some pride.

This false sense of humility that you wear like a mask, disguising your unseen pride, will only lead you to an early grave. Long before it’s your time. Unnecessarily. Sadly. You will die of a broken heart.

It’s time that you sing your song. Write your verse. Bake that fresh batch of raisin oatmeal cookies.

Smile.

Forget your humility.

Embrace your humanity.

Fill your mornings with dreams. Abandon yourself at midday to your plans. Spend the night learning and making mistakes, while you ponder how this all fits together.

There is a place in this world for all of us. There is a need for all of us.

We are an insignificant speck of dust, but an imperative grain of a vast desert.

Don’t waste your energy, proving the false reality, you refuse to let go.

It hasn’t served you well.

Stand in arrogance, and dare to be, who you once dreamed to be.