I want to introduce you to my friend Lara Margaret Marjerrison…a spoken word poet, storyteller, and speaker. Lara has very generously agreed to share one of her poems with us to join us in acknowledging May as Mental Health Awareness Month. In this powerful piece, Lara explores how the right decisions are often not easy decisions and in that place within ourselves where our deepest truths reside, our clearest choices are most in alignment with our greater life’s purpose. But, as Lara says, “If you’re not feeling entirely ready yet, it may be…just a little faith will be required.” Thank you Lara for sharing this with us.

faith will be required

you will doubt yourself
and faith will be required
when the voices in your head
shake you awake
in the dead of night
and demand you face
the darkness
before walking you through the light
faith will be required
when you encounter
your Self on the path
to realization
and begin to grasp
the magnitude of the manifestation
of your own potential
for greatness
faith will be required
when you question your ability
to navigate such uncharted terrain liberated from the pain
of playing small
shrinking away from it all
when you let fall away
all that artificially propped you up
to this day
and experience that feeling
of terrifying freedom
for the first (and many successive) time(s) untangled from the rhymes
written by others
who tried to get you to conform
to the norms that never fit
when you’re finally done with it
faith will be required
when you begin to grow
and change
and the world attempts
to tamp you down again
and you push your way back up
like a violet through the sidewalk
when you point to your own heart
and tell it, “Now.. I’m listening”
and you tune in to its voice
and sway in sinus rhythm
and step in time into the vision
it’s projecting on the walls
coming crumbling down around you from the pounding of its beat
and the ground takes solid form underneath your feet
and your skin begins to fit and you remember
who you are
is who you’ve always been only hidden
and now exposed
and who you are and who you’re being
finally align
and the dream you’ve dreamt a thousand times comes true
and scares the shit out of you
faith will be required
when the people you thought
you could count on let you down
and you learn that expectations
are the enemy
and surrender is your friend
and your perceptions of the world
will never be the same again
when you find what sets your soul on fire
you learn fear and doubt
are liars
and the truth comes from within
and in spite of all your learning you still wonder where in hell to begin
when the only one
holding you accountable is you
and the easiest thing to do
would be to quit
(holy hell how you wanna quit)
but you know now giving up on it
is not an option any longer
when you grit your teeth
and opt back in
faith will be required
when you clear your throat
and then your mind
and look your doubters in the eye
and tell them
you won’t stop me this time
and you shake off old ideas
about how freedom is defined
when you turn your gaze into the mirror
and love who’s looking back at you

when all you thought you ever knew deep down inside proves true
and all you’re left with
is your highest you
when you discover your Divinity tap into the source of everything that ever was or ever will be when it dawns on you
that all of it is all of you
for what is faith but understanding
the one you’ve been looking for is you
the one you’ve been praying to is you
and every fresh moment
is a blank slate
and the truth is
you can overwrite
what’s been hardwired
but, faith will be required
faith in the Self
you’ve known all along
you just didn’t feel strong enough
to protect from the throng
from the echoes of outsiders drowning her out casting doubt where what really belonged
was faith