I suspect I might – on a very, very, good day – be capable of conjuring an anthem-worthy sentence, similar to Alice Walker’s (below). Other days? I think, ‘Fool – you can’t convey what she did in sixteen succinct words!’ I’ve got the quote tacked up on my wall along with a piece of writing from my own archives, circa, I dunno, the first millennia? 😉 The combo makes me think…and from time to time, I pause to read and let both Alice’s thought and my own sink in:
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.
-Alice Walker
Life can be hard, when we seek softness. Like can be maze-like when we seek straight, navigable paths. Life can be joy-filled, yet stingy, especially when we long to linger in the light. Life can be a snare, enticing us to drop down rather than rise.
-Me
Holiday time is here for some of us…several weeks from here to January that, despite festivities of all sorts, can be laden with emotional potholes. Staying strong, facing forward while finding ways to be resilient and resourceful? Tricky business and there’s no ‘one size fits all’. What helps? Remembering to marvel in our talents, our gifts. Gloat a little…it’s okay. We’re not going to please everyone around us and hitching our happiness wagons to others is a sure-fire way to slide…and feel less-than.
Alice Walker provided one of many antidote-inducing boosts. We have power, if we claim it, and reveling in our ability to be poised under pressure…while surrounding ourselves with people, practices and ideology that guide us toward strength? Life goals for me, right there. That’s how we ride out the cloudbursts, the messy, the maddening and the melancholy.
So go ahead…be a force…be fully YOU. Getting there might involve being a little choosy about who and what we allow into our heads and hearts. Me? The older I get, the more I believe in Alice’s sixteen words and the reminder that not everyone and everything in front of me is worthy of my time and attention. I’ve got the power…so do you.
Vicki 😊
Victoria Ponders 
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