Resilience

“Wait makes you think you can do that?”
“Who do you think you are?”
The DARK FORCES of FEAR and DOUBT wake me in the night
whispering spiteful questions and disparaging affirmations
“It will never work.” they hiss from the dark corner
“You’re not good enough” they chide from the closet
“You will fail! You will fail!” they chant from below

I pull back the covers and invite them into bed
Wrapped in slimy tendrils,
Black tongues slither into my ear
Constricted in their malevolent embrace;
I am presented the most disappointing outcome
A future where I am embarrassed, ridiculed, ostracized
left alone to die in poverty
High heavy waves of intense pain crash over me
the cruelest emotions debauch my mind
REGRET and GUILT pound my spirit into a bloody pulp
EMBARRASSMENT burns my body to cinders
SHAME scatters my ashes into Oblivion
Dreams dashed. Soul crushed;
All is agony.
Destroyed, I fade away
Never to be remembered;

Then… Light!

The Darkness slinks away from the dawn
And I am not dead
Nor is my will or ambition
I accept the possibility of the dark dream
and in doing so find STRENGTH!
Indeed that could be the outcome;
But, maybe not
It is equally possible that I succeed!
And, I would rather meet a horrible end fighting
then die never having tried;
With the light on my side, I turn the tables
I outmatch the dark forces’ considerable effort with a simple phrase

“I’m going to do it anyway”

I tell myself “I can.”

— Written by Will Kilpatrick