I sat with an old demon today, the demon I call despair.
Despair doesn’t attack like a war unfolding, for me it often just sits in a chair opposite and taunts. It reminds me of my deficiencies my weaknesses and worst of all my failures.
Meditation, priming and even distraction do little to remove it. Despair is my Moriarty. Like the fictitious character in Sherlock Holmes despair is my evil foe.
I don’t write this to look for absolution or even internal forgiveness for my failures, I write because it is my soul which speaks through words on pages. I write this because some have asked me to, some have said through hearing that I struggle they now feel they aren’t alone, and in that I don’t feel so alone too.
At these moments where the bottom is at my feet my only way out is through others I admire the most.
I found reprieve in the words of Maya Angelou today. Actress, poet, civil rights advocate she came from a start so filled with despair, I know it would have destroyed me. But she emerged more powerful, more insightful and more empathetic.
Today 5 quotes from Maya Lifted my spirit and helped me take that step forward so that I am not touching the bottom, I’m climbing upwards.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
“When you learn, teach, when you get, give.”
