a poem addressing self-doubt

 relax into who you are

seems to me that the first art is intuition:

a sense of rightness within

when a good choice is made,

a decision as to who one is

that fits the best that can manifest,

all of us, but particularly the young,

are challenged to see truly in the mirror,

to not see a distortion we fear we see,

a wrongness that fits a lesser view of possibility,

we should not see the imposter it is so easy to feel we are,

but rather the self with which we were born,

the one who joys in being, in learning, in connecting,

at our heart we want to give to others and to our best,

to choose a positive reality that will not be denied,

at our best we want to risk the action, the words,

the creation of assertion, 

but we fear the negative from others

 who seem to want to cancel our positive,

at our best we can separate 

for a time from the herd,

and be seen, 

we can deny the shouts of a false reality 

that wants to deny our unique gifts,

if we doubt ourselves we mistake who we are

by connecting to the least of who we can be,

we should follow the inner guide,

the intuition that knows we can be more

than self-doubt incessantly whispers at us,

we can then relax into letting ourselves just be our best,

we, and others, should break free into confidence, self-assertion,

helping not only self, but herd, to be better.

here's what an eighth grader told me thirty years ago:

"I decided to be who I am.  

I like myself more and others like me better."

by Henry H. Walker

October 21, ‘23