The Courage to Be Your Best Self

Guest post by J. M. Hawkins

Dear Soul,

I read somewhere, “Our chief want in life is someone who can make us do what we can.” Oh, if only I could find that someone!

Dear Life,

It won’t take long. Look in the mirror.

Then commit this poem to heart:

Only you, and you alone,

Can make you do what you can.

But you must be the coach,

The player and the fan.

You’ll have to dig deeply

And find the gumption;

All heart, all soul, all might—

Your only assumption.

Today, I’ll begin with myself; I’ll be my best self; I’ll rely on myself for the courage to be happy—to be what I can be.

 *The Dear Soul/Dear Life dialogs by J.M. Hawkins are adapted and used by permission. They are excerpted from his collection, Word From Soul City and were used in discussion groups that met in cities across America in the 1990s and early 2000s in response to the Life That Loves to Happen seminars with Landon Saunders.