BE THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR SOUL


BE THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR SOUL

When I was 13 years old, I had an aunt who said to me: You will amount to nothing in life.

Apparently, she had sent me on an errand and I had done something else.

Those words rattled me for many years, as I couldn’t figure out why a fellow human being would conclude about a human being based on a childish mistake.

It also made me afraid of doing anything as I had been told: “that I will amount to nothing.”

However, I realized that as I grew older, more insulting words were thrown at me at the university: I remember very vividly my first day at college: the lecturer came in and said let me make one thing known to you class: 70% of you will fail this course.

I started working with a boss who said to me one week after I was hired that: Michael, do you know that you are wrong hire and I think I made a mistake hiring you.

I am sure you are wondering how I overcame this entire negative vibes.

I became the captain of my soul, because I realized that they could get to my body, but I must never lose my soul or heart to them.

One thing I have done for many years is stay strong reading two poems which are currently hanging in my study. 

Those poems are:

1.    Invictus: Written by William Ernest Henley in 1875 and published in 1888.
(The last stanza of the poem which drives me goes thus :)
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Anytime, things get tough and I remember this poem, I console myself with the fact: 

“That I am the master of my fate and I am the captain of my soul”.

Always, remember this, no one can take away your joy or happiness, cos you are the captain of your soul.

2.    Our Greatest Fear: Written by Marianne Williamson
Actually, the entire poem drives me. It goes thus:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

 It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.'

Often times, I have asked myself this question. Who am I to be successful?

Who am I? Why should I become a writer? Why should I blog about the secret of life?

The only answer that comes to me is that if I don’t.

I will be playing small and I will not serve the world with my gifts.

That would even make me more insecure.

So for me, security is guaranteed only when we let our gifts shine and help other people to discover their own gifts.

That is what makes you the Captain of your soul.

I trust that this article will make everyone to realize that you must revive and use your gifts so that you can revive others, liberate them and make them Captains of their souls. 

Thank you.

P.S: Poems culled from Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Return_to_Love

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus

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