Champion: Overcoming Fear

Lately life has thrown off the gloves and thrown some haymakers. With every punch, I have honestly considered giving up. I mean giving up in the most disparaging of ways. However, daily I wake up with the need to live and live abundantly. The problems I have faced this year are not the severest in the world, nor are they the lightest, but ask anyone who goes through something, pain is relative. I have often woken up this year in the middle of the night, covered in sweat, dreading to look at my phone or emails or just merely hoping that someone — anything — will work out the way its supposed to. Yet, like clockwork, I failed. Plans broke down. Investments in shambles.

Fear begins to set in. You can quote all the Rev Run mnemonic devices you can mentally conjure, but fear is a very real and persistent feeling. It is virtually crippling, rendering even the strongest of us a ball of tears. Yet, there is something peculiar about the way I experienced fear this year. It would descend on me like a thick fog and then immediately be pierced repeated by this urge, this obsession, inside of me to change the circumstances…

I cannot explain this feeling… Perhaps its integrity, perhaps it is pride, or character, or just a sharpened sense of survival, but I tell you that my spirit seemingly springs into action. I devise contingencies and alternate routes. I begin to look at my life objectively, see that my problems are trivial in terms of human life, and I begin to rediscover my faith. I begin to envision bigger, better procedures for my business, begin to probe my emotions to find a deeper capacity to love.

But most importantly, I find that in every single wound that circumstance afflicts me, there is wisdom. That wisdom is directly applicable each and every day. It causes my entire being to align with precepts of joy and shun any semblance of powerlessness. I stop being angry and become motivated. Anger is the most dangerous of emotions because it clouds a person’s genuine sensibilities; it prohibits one from ever working their way out. One needs all their innate faculties when life hurls beefy blows, so we must work to mitigate anger.

Everything you currently want in life is a decision away. You don’t need someone to hand you an opportunity, you don’t need a miracle from God. You don’t need a breakthrough, lifesaver, or vacation. You need only to make a conscious decision to ignore the fear, ignore the destructive emotions, and choose to make your life whatever you feel its not. God created us to be free moral agents , who consult Him on us becoming fulfilled individuals, its time for us to start acting like it. Out of fear we blame everything and everyone for our lack of success: government, race, family, friends, God himself, astrological sign, bosses, or cultural norms, when the common denominator is us.

Life does not owe you anything except your eventual passing from this earth. The vast majority of what you do between exiting your mother’s womb and expelling your last breath comes from how you respond to circumstances. You are defined by you perspectives, not your circumstances. Choose to be successful and all the fear, stress, unfortunate circumstances, lawsuits, failures, missed loan payments, evictions, repossessions, firings, rejections, and heartbreaks will merely fortify your resolve to emerge victorious. Be warned: this shit isn’t easy. You will be hit and hit hard, but as long as you choose to get up time and time again with more information, you will be a champion among champions.

bryce

Fearless: young, thin, black boy

I can’t say that I’ve always been fearless,
As a kid I was afraid of many things,
But before I came a man I was aware I was peerless,
I just always knew I could take a few stings…
Life is B(ee) right?
A bitch, a broken promise, a battered opportunity,
A borderline disaster in the midst of your community,
A bastard standing between you a hoped for fate,
A burden filling your being with understandable hate,
& Disdain, yet I always refrained from giving in,
Something in,
This thin young, black boy,
Told him there was joy and retribution,
As long as you drafted the correct solution,
Created the bulwarks and bastions,
Fashioned a world inside you which happened,
To display a champion,
Thats easier said than done though,
Especially when Pops dough is low,
And the church is the place you gotta go,
To ask for funds to pay the motel rates,
It tough to don the winner’s mentality,
When the reality of the morning is
Your tuition aint paid,
And Financial Aid has made,
Your situation a game unplayed,
Counselor looking at you unswayed,
I thought College was about good grades?
Nah that shit isn’t easy…
When you loved so hard,
And had given your all,
To women who weren’t yours,
And y’all were bound to fall,
The resent in your heart paints the next girl pall,
& That once powerful emotional center
Begins to stall….
Life takes pride in breaking us.
But I always took pride in my personal mending.
I was the one whose mind enjoyed bending,
Rules, regulations, and parameters of existence
So that the ending was a vending,
Supplying deep wisdom, consummate enlightenment,
I would never accept failure as an indictment,
Or harbinger of a bleak future,
I would take needle to the fabric of time,
A put in the correct suture,
Before I ever took on second or third rateness,
Because I was destined for greatness,
However that came to me,
Unshakable confidence, even when I felt foreign,
Unbreakable conscience, even on the bottom’s flooring,
Tears pouring,
Shedded from ducts that remained salted til the morning,
A young boy mourning,
The loss of his Midwestern Affluence,
Giving way to glitzy West Coast Poverty.
Seemed that God Himself had evacuated the property.
But that thin, young, black boy knew,
That his next-timely shoes,
Would be ones that no man had filled,
Rockefeller said “Competition is a Sin”,
So that young boy was inclined to be holy,
No peer, no fear,
No man, no spirit,
Could shake the conviction from his soul,
The hate, he couldn’t hear it.
Because he was one with his dreams….

I am that thin, young black boy.
I write about love because that inspires,
I write about success because I require,
An existence with dimensions that topple spires,
And demands songs be sung from society’s lyres,
I speak with wisdom because the Lord is copious,
With enlightenment that intoxicates like Heavenly opiates,
I communciate with tenacity because its only appropriate,
To never back down or even associate,
With anything beneath the aspirations I practice,
I live with total assurance because if my past is a lattice,
Then I am supported by a web of evidence,
That proves my resilience and the timely Providence,
I am prominent,
I am powerful,
I am confident,
Never sorrowful,
I am dauntless,
I am relentless,
I am eloquent,
Never pretentious.
I am the young, thin, black boy whose empire awaits.
Because I have accepted & become one with my fate.

bryce

Fearless

I can’t say that I’ve always been fearless,
As a kid I was afraid of many things,
But before I came a man I was aware I was peerless,
I just always knew I could take a few stings…
Life is B(ee) right?
A bitch, a broken promise, a battered opportunity,
A bastard standing between you a fate,
A burden filling your mental with hate,
& Disdain, yet I always refrained from giving in,
Something in,
This thin young, black boy,
Told him there was joy and retribution,
As long as you drafted the correct solution,
Created the bulwarks and bastions,
Fashioned a world inside you which happened,
To display a champion,
Thats easier said than done though,
Especially when Pops dough is low,
And the church is the place you gotta go,
To ask for funds to pay the motel rates,
It tough to don the winner’s mentality,
When the reality of the morning is
Your tuition aint paid,
And Financial Aid has made,
Your situation a game unplayed,
Counselor looking at you unswayed,
I thought College was about good grades?
Nah that shit isn’t easy…
When you loved so hard,
And had given your all,
To women who weren’t yours,
And y’all were bound to fall,
The resent in your heart paints the next girl pall,
& That once powerful emotional center
Begins to stall….
Life takes pride in breaking us.
But I always took pride in my personal mending.
I was the one whose mind enjoyed bending,
Rules, regulations, and parameters of existence
So that the ending was a vending,
Supplying of deep wisdom, consummate enlightenment,
I would never accept failure as an indictment,
Or harbinger of a bleak future,
I would take needle to the fabric of time,
A put in the correct suture,
Because I was destined for greatness,
However that came to me,
Unshakable confidence, even when I felt foreign,
Unbreakable conscience, even on the bottom’s flooring,
Tears pouring,
Shedded from ducts that remained salted in the morning,
A young boy mourning,
The loss of his Midwestern Affluence,
Giving way to Glitzy Poverty.
Seemed that God Himself had evacuated the property.
But that thin, young, black boy knew,
That his next-timely shoes,
Would be ones that no man had filled,
Rockefeller said “Competition is a Sin”,
So that young boy was inclined to be holy,
No fear, no peer,
No man, no spirit,
Could shake the conviction from his soul,
The hate, he couldn’t hear it.
Because he was one with his dreams….

I am that thin, young black boy.
I write about love because that inspires,
I write about success because I require,
An existence with expanses that toppled spires,
A demands songs be sung from society’s lyres,
I speak with wisdom because the Lord is copious,
With enlightenment that intoxicates like Heavenly opiates,
I communciate with tenacity because its only appropriate,
To never back down or even associate,
With anything believe the aspirations I practice,
I live with total assurance because if my past is a lattice,
Then I am supported by a web of evidence,
That proves my resilience and the timely Providence,
I am prominent,
I am powerful,
I am confident,
Never sorrowful,
I am dauntless,
I am relentless,
I am eloquent,
Never pretentious.
I am the young, thin, black boy whose empire awaits.
Because I have accepted & become one with my fate.

bryce

The Monarchs

Where some see a pauper,
She sees a king,
Where others see a peasant,
He sees his queen,
Thats the peculiar thing,
About the being we call love,
While others are below,
A few are passionately above,
Borne on quixotic wings,
Afloat graciously like doves.
Hand in hand they exist,
Perfectly interdigitated gloves..
Yet others dub,
These intimate few lunatics,
Heretics, Othello & Desdemon,
Like blacklisted intelligentsia,
Their heartfelt actions are bemoaned,
Criticisms honed, skeptical lights shone,
Yet their heart still remain their throne,
The Monarchs of a Kingdom Unseen,
Generational Despots, King & Queen