This is a poem about feeling small but knowing you have the potential to be so much bigger than you've ever allowed yourself to be. This is a poem about garnering the courage to live close to your vulnerability. And making life new. It’s a poem about being yourself in all your glory, really.

“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” — Alan Alda

The message of this poem about being yourself is that your circumstances don’t get to decide who you are, or how you live. YOU get to decide.

That's not to say it's an easy thing to do.

I’m still learning to say “thank you” to those experiences that have brought me to my knees; they shattered my masks and tore down my protective walls.

Here's to your own evolution, your own homecoming.

A Poem about Being Yourself, Come What May

I am learning to say

Thank you, even to those

Wretched things.

I am learning to release this

Need to stay small and guarded

In my own tiny fortress.

I am going to find out how loudly

I can sing the songs that are trapped

Inside of me.

There are gifts I need to discover.

I am learning that when

It’s beautiful inside, it’s

Beautiful outside too.

 

There is stuff stored inside,

Deep inside of me,

That’s no longer mine to hold.

I will be bold enough to see it,

Unmask it,

Let my own masks fall to the floor.

I can make this world

Inside of me

A world worth loving for.

I am going to find out that

There’s so much more beauty inside

Than I have ever given myself credit for.

 

I am trying to say

Thank you, to those things that

Make me feel small.

They’ve awoken me to this place of

Newfound strength, after all.

I am finding my strength.

I’m not building walls anymore.

I let the rivers run through me so

I don’t crumble trying to resist

Every blow.

 

The struggle is not mine to keep today,

Not mine to wait for tomorrow.

If I can learn to let go of

What goes on inside of others,

I can begin the transformation of

Growing what’s beautiful

Inside of me.

I’ll stop standing in my own way now.

I’ll start working with every side—

Wretched and divine.

My resistance has only been blocking

My ability to fully be

Who I came here to be.

 

The world outside of me cannot

Hit my wounds,

Cannot tear down my walls,

And bring me down too.

I’m already dismantling my false protections;

One rock at a time,

I redefine who I came here to be,

What I came here to see.

I am open and the rivers rush through me.

The winds blow fiercely not because

They wish to uproot my life, but because

Their power serves mines.

My roots grow deeper and

My wings stretch out.

There is nothing that can make me doubt

All that I am here to be.

 

I am learning to say

Thank you for everything:

Thank you for this lesson in sight;

Thank you for showing me my own might.

Oh, thank you for telling me that

Nothing can’t be done.

I am thankful, now, for

Knowing I am the one

I have been waiting for my whole life.

. . .

Tell me:

Which part of this poem did you need to read today?

Tell me in the comments. I read every single one, and I'd love to know!

You are the one you’ve been waiting for.

With love,

Jen

P.S. Never forget how creative and powerful and valuable you are. Go visit my shop to find the (im)perfect poetry print that celebrates you in your fullness, in your mess and magic and everything in between.