Sometimes there are those days, may be even months and years, when you hold yourself back. You’re thinking small…afraid to take the leap.

You feel unsure, not certain of what you have to offer and are fearful that it doesn’t bring value. You question your word, wondering if it’s worth sharing and if anyone would listen.

You question your contributions, doubting if they have they meaning or have made a difference. The path you’ve traveled so far seems pointless and the direction of the one going forward is unclear.

When you find yourself listening too much to — and obeying — that little voice in your head that’s fueling your negative and doubtful thoughts, read this poem.

Be renewed. Feel confident. Share yourself, your gifts.

Jump off the cliff, grow your wings on the way up and tell that little voice to just hush.

Cargo by Greg Kimura

You enter life a ship laden with meaning, purpose and gifts

sent to be delivered to a hungry world.

And as much as the world needs your cargo,

you need to give it away.

Everything depends on this.

But the world forgets its needs,

and you forget your mission,

and the ancestral maps that used to guide you

have become faded scrawls on the parchment of dead pharaohs.

The cargo weighs you heavy the longer it is held

and spoilage becomes a risk.

The ship sputters from port to port and at each you ask:

“Is this the way?”

But the way cannot be found without knowing the cargo,

and the cargo cannot be known without recognizing there is a way,

and it is simply this:

You have gifts.

The world needs your gifts.

You must deliver them.

The world may not know it is starving,

but the hungry know,

and they will find you

when you discover your cargo

and start to give it away.

 

Art by Bridgette Guerzon Mills, Teach Me to Fly