Let go
Of all the excess of life
That has stuck to you
Pare it down.
Remove. Trim.
Give away.
Walk away from sounds
That drown
Your own voice
Reject words
That are untrue
Coming from you.
Listen to your silence
Look at what’s left
When all is gone.
Befriend that residue
Cherish it;
Treasure it.
Aloneness
Is not to be foolishly grieved;
It is to be intelligently valued.
Don’t compromise the time
With yourself
For some base company.
Know where
True fulfilment lies
Value yourself.
It’s not that we don’t know
How to respect others
It’s that we don’t know
How to love ourselves.
Our self-love
Takes the form of arrogance-
An insatiable need
To seem of greater dimensions.
We zoom out of intimacy
We stand distant and above others
Measuring their being…
Sizing them up
So that we may continue
To feed our sense of self-worth.
But what I fail to see
Is that ‘I’ am not my Self.
‘My’ self is not ‘me’.
It’s not an ever-evolving being
That must be asserted
To determine its existence.
It’s not a life that needs to grow
Through accomplishment and gain;
But is a flame that needs to be kindled
So that it can confront
Its own darkness.
Self-love is not easy
It takes courage to shine a light
To your formlessness
And to see clearly
All the creatures of your imagination
You thought were real.
Respect grows
Not in the glorious conception
You create of another
But in the removal
Of all misconceptions about yourself.
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 