We Rise!

A tormented mind. A tortured soul.

To me, writing is sanity. Reading, piece of mind, serenity.

And yet.

The echoes linger.

There was a time when I wished the night would never end.

That it would go on and on and on.

So I could hide myself away from family, friends, and the world. From myself.

To hide my disdain, my disappointment, my weakness, my shame. Too scared to live, hiding in the shadows, avoiding to be seen.

Day. Sunlight. Was the enemy.

Every morning, a walk forlorn. A shuffle down a long, narrow, suffocating corridor, windowless, monotonous. Having no hope, no joy, just dread.

Then one day an epiphany. I dreamt of a life of hope, of power, of control.

Stoicism taught me the dichotomy of control.

A realisation that there are things outside my control, and there also are those things within the sphere of my control.

And there it was. Looking me in the face. Beckoning. Pleading. Demanding to be noticed.

I am who I think I am. Nothing more, nothing less.

My opinion of myself. It matters. It's important. It is all I have.

The applause of the many. The validation of the masses. The praise. Mere ego trips. They mean nothing to me.

Sublime.

I now know myself.

Flawed, imperfect human,

Still, worth giving a damn about myself.

The world is what I think it is. What I say it is. What I believe it to be.

There is no other way to live.

So live your life. Let the world judge you. As it will. It always does.

Pick up the broken pieces. Tie them back together. We are strongest at the mended points. We thrive because we have been broken, but not defeated.

To walk—striding forward—with our heads held high, shoulders back, chest out.

Passion our forte, our guardrail, our drive. We fall, or stand by it. Without it, we might as well be dead.

Avoiding Satan's signposts: envy, greed, lust, anger, arrogance, pride, evil. You know the list.

We fight on our feet. We bend, we do not kneel.

We participate in Life, for that is what it means to Live.

We rise.

For we can do no other.

We are warriors, through and through.

The battle is not over, unless we surrender.

And NO!

We were not born to such weakness.

Seize the day!

We can do no other.

So we rise!