Tag: strength

Character

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters.”

– Orson F. Whitney

Building Mental Strength

For many of us we hear a lot, and some of us even speak a lot, about change and revolution and encouragement and just overall maintaining a quality of life we have come to understand as a positive one. This is the reason  many of us have decided to blog. We post motivating quotes, speak about our struggles, triumphs and overall how we maintain the daily grind. In return some of us hope to  receive insight while others hope to spread it. It is the reason for life coaches and therapy sessions. We do these things to improve or to heal so that we can go on to implement those very important changes and become overall better people. One thing however that sticks out to me from all of this is mental strength. Building mental strength in our lives and maintaining it on a daily basis. This is not always easy but it is worth more than the physical changes we tend to seek after as we strive to implement them in our quest to do better in whatever area we need to. This is important because most of what we need to go on in life requires a certain level of mental clarity and strength to produce. Achieving this often requires work on the mind itself, ridding it of everything that acts as a negative force against positive change. It requires we empty ourselves so that we can be built back up again. Otherwise nothing we try to alter on the outside, no dream job or career, no encouraging word, will matter. It probably sounds personal and that’s because it is; building and maintaining mental stability is a personal journey for each of us as we strive to improve our lives but it is critical to the operation. It is critical because it is we who often get in our own way; it is our own thoughts and our own fears. It is critical because you are only as strong as your mind is. To change the way that you live, ultimately, is to change the way that you think.

We Can Move Mountains

Huge mountains
and great hills
they tower above our heads
like father’s to sons
the intimidating weight
of experience
to our youth
like a mother’s instruction
heavy with discipline
is the carved stone
the frightening rock
but it is true
we can move mountains
if we tried
if we faith-ed
one pebble at a time
one pen to a rhyme
one stuttering syllable
and leaking ink
we scatter mustard seeds
and stumbling blocks
like children at play
except
there are no toys
no plastic dolls
or wind up cars
just similes
and metaphors
passing pebbles
and conquering mountains

Why I Write Black

two generations

Because flowers grow in strange places

like tattered pieces of wood and recycled paper

 

Because history is frost bitten

and winter refuses to be comforted by the sun

bluish-white and numbed pain

cold skin

and prickling feeling

 

Because the sky don’t stay dark forever

but light ain’t taught in history class

 

Because some skirts

are too heavy

to lift without permission

Because Dust Tracks on The Road

was subtracted 3 chapters

Because some truths

are too big to sacrifice

on American alters

 

Because Zora died broke

and Nina died sad

Because their voices still sing

Because strange fruit still swings

 

Because ignorance is worth more than rubies

and diamond gems

Because no one has picked up the pieces

of truth

underneath the ruble

of bombed out churches

on 16th streets

Because little girls ain’t little girls no more

but crushed bones

and melted skin

a strike of disobedience

against premeditated sin

 

Because hope is stronger than despair

Because freedom is worth more

than all the

raisins in the sun