To truly laugh,
you must be able to take your pain
and play with it.
Charlie Chaplin
In 1862, April 16 went down US History as Emancipation Day, an Act by good old Abe to abolish slavery. Yet headlines to this day reveal that we, free citizens of a great country, prefer to enslave ourselves to stories of victimhood. More power to those who bravely make the best of whatever life deals them, owning their power to move forward and choose how their story unfolds, even as the weather insists on Winter when the calendar says it’s long overdue for Spring.
This poem by Nayyirah Waheed inspired the title of Brene Brown‘s book Rising Strong:
Manifesto of the Brave and Brokenhearted
There is no greater threat to the critics and cynics and fearmongers
Than those of us who are willing to fall
Because we have learned how to rise
With skinned knees and bruised hearts;
We choose owning our stories of struggle,
Over hiding, over hustling, over pretending.
When we deny our stories, they define us.
When we run from struggle, we are never free.
So we turn toward truth and look it in the eye.
We will not be characters in our stories.
Not villains, not victims, not even heroes.
We are the authors of our lives.
We write our own daring endings.
We craft love from heartbreak,
Compassion from shame,
Grace from disappointment,
Courage from failure.
Showing up is our power.
Story is our way home.
Truth is our song.
We are the brave and brokenhearted.
We are rising strong.
Click on “Leave a Comment” (top left) to share how you’d write your own daring ending.
xoxox
xoxox
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