Introduction:
As I wrote the following article with “Wait till you see my smile” from Alicia Keys’s new
 album “The Element of Freedom” playing in my ear. I thought about Michael Blosil, Marie Osmond’s son who recently committed suicide and the many who like me fought and are fighting that private battle. I thought about the young people we have lost and those we are losing in so many different ways. I thought about my cousins and the dozens who have no role models to teach them how to break the cycles rather than repeat them. I thought about the miracles which happen everyday, and the hope I hold in my heart which is where the changes in our world must start.
I lifted the weight I lifted my faith
I was down, I was out, and I was trying to figure out what my depression was about. When I was the child who they had so much to say about, they said all I used to do was pout. They said a lot of hurtful things that left me in self doubt. Instead of helping me when I fell down, they would gather and speculate about why I’m on the ground. They wondered what kind of pain could be so profound, and as I heard through the grapevine the other day, they still have so many things to say. While they left me to my own devices, I learned how to make sacrifices, I learned how to love. I learned how to die to my weaknesses and emerge in the greatness of the God above, the God inside, the God who gave me the strength to lift the weight of pride, and the weight of the family tide. A tide which we as the children are to often lost in. We are lost to the letter, instead of breaking the curses we neglect to be better. The weight of the family tide no longer has the power to define me because I have shifted it into the forgotten sea within which I would have drowned, if it wasn’t for the strength and faith I have found.
The seas of hate…
From my heart to the greatness in you which I see, let me impart to you what I wish someone would have given to me. This goes out to those of you still floating in the forgotten sea. I know what they told you that you could never be. I know the weight of the water, but you can walk on it if you get your faith in order. To my cousins and the dozens of you which they are alike; walking in the darkness having yet to see the light; I come to tell you that it’s covered behind the hatred that you fight. It is the hatred for all the sad situations you know, and the hatred for all the people who seem to be standing in the way of where you want to go. The first thing I want you to know today are three words we don’t often get to hear people say to us. Three words which truth must go before and come behind, because love without truth is hypocrisy. That is the mark of a foe or an enemy. Those three words are I love you, and my love for you inspires me to help you be the greatest that you can be, which is what I want to help you see. So listen to me now, the house you live in is not the battle ground. Although it is often where the conflict starts, where we must fight it is in our hearts. The seas of hate may rise from where others start them, but in our hearts we can part them.
Left for dead…
To those of you who were left for dead under the weight of the confusion they left in your
 head. I come to tell you how I got out. I changed my attitude, and in doing so I changed my altitude. When my altitude changed I saw life from a different point of view. I learned things about myself that I never knew. I learned what with faith man could do. I learned to fly which I could never do. I learned to see myself through the eyes of greatness through which I now see you. My heart is right because it is light and my soul is well which is why I can tell the naysayers not only that they can’t hurt me anymore, but that making company is misery’s chore. A chore out of which I hope they can find themselves someday, to see the truth which is so clearly on display even through the confusion of the rubble, which is that the trouble makers are the ones in the most trouble.
Let them go…
I know you look upon yourselves as I once did, as a victim of the things they did. But let me offer this gift to you, the gift of this attitude, the gift of this altitude, and the gift of this point of view. It is because of these gifts I learned to see myself through the eyes of greatness, through which I now see you. The weight (the manipulation of your mind) that is so profound, the weight that keeps you down may have been placed there by those who were out to get you. But it is not the weight that keeps you bound, it is your own strength which works against you. The weight is only there to help convince you to accept what is not true, which is that you are not worthy of the greatness God has given you. The weight is in your hand that is what I wanted you to know. Now its time for you to let it go. Let the tears of healing flow, let the compassion in your heart comeback and forgive them not necessarily for what they did but for what they lack. Only you have the power to do that. I was down, I was out, but now I worked my salvation out. I have nothing more to pout about. My smile is now something I don’t leave home without. I’ve found happiness in the peace I hone. Now I can truly call it my own.
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