Many of us find ourselves torn between two needs.
The need to be who we are meant to be.
To follow our dreams.
And the need to fit in,
Often shrinking our dreams.
And it is easier to play it small,
To bow down and to conform,
Than it is to stand tall,
Rooted in your own truth and weathered by their storm.
The wrath that can sometimes come from an insecurity that you have provoked by simply ascending into your heights can very quickly turn into slander,
Rejection or harmful envy.
And you learn this long before you get there,
Because there are moments,
Fleeting moments,
When you muster the courage to explore your capacity.
To relinquish the benchmarks that define success,
Not defined by you,
But by society.
To have a little taste of what it would be like to do what makes you happy.
In those moments,
You're less interested in feeding egos,
More congruent with your ethos.
You drop the need to please,
And this can be threatening,
Putting less people at ease.
And when that happens,
You find yourself misunderstood.
A lot of heat comes your way and it feels like hate.
Very slated,
Berated,
A bit too different for the people to tolerate.
So you cave in,
You cater to them,
You slouch against the wall you built to protect yourself from them.
What a shame.
If you could just plow through the sufferance,
You will earn the resilience.
But oftentimes we don't.
A sense of belonging is something we so desperately want.
To be accepted and respected is a need that is essential,
But how far do we go before we compromise our potential?
Some would say there is a way to balance the two,
To find a middle ground that would please both them and you.
I say,
Find a small tribe to see you through.
And tip the scales in favor of showing up as you,
Just you.
