Summary
You can choose who you want to be despite what other people have tried to make you or tell you that you are.
Elaine @thewebrecluse
November 30 2022 12:00pm
I am queer and Black. I suffer from two chronic illnesses and had chronic pain for over 15 years. Doctors treat me as worthless and lazy when I’m anything but. I grew up with abuse and mental illness in my family. I’ve been bullied, beaten, betrayed and mistreated since age 9. Am I angry about the state of the world? Anger is a total waste of time and energy and only lessens you. The world now is just Hell and I was born into one and survived it so the world is cake …
I’ve talked often about not abiding any negativity in my feed or in my life. I don’t have time for people’s nonsense. I don’t have room for negative viewpoints or people’s displaced anger and dark energy. I’ve spent my ENTIRE life battling that trash and I simply don’t have the patience or energy for those who want to dwell in a place of darkness especially when there is so much light and so many reasons to delight in the wonder and beauty of life. You take in what you put out. You can choose.
I abhor optimists. I am above and beyond all a REALIST and even a depressive realist at that … and even I know that there is MORE to this world and our lives than darkness and anger and negativity. Even when faced with abuse and hopelessness and brutality and even EVIL … there are other roads one can take, there are other viewpoints one can have, there is a power inside that you can tap into and use to rise up and survive and EVOLVE beyond the trash and wretchedness around you. Choose.
“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.” – Epictetus
I didn’t survive my childhood and 50 years of being Black and queer in a world that STILL wants to kill such people on sight by being angry and negative and screaming into the void and trying to fight unwinnable battles with faceless trolls. I survived by seeking LIGHT, by seeking KINDNESS, by embracing BOTH of those things in myself and ASCENDING to a mental and spiritual place that leaves evil powerless in my life. I help others by sharing who I am and whatever I can of that light.
You can choose.
You can choose who you want to be despite what other people have tried to make you or tell you that you are.
You can choose what you want to put out into the world.
Even if all you have been given is something terrible and dark and upsetting, you don’t have to put that back out into the world.
You can rise up or sink low.
You can speak up or remain silent.
You can be light or a source of darkness.
You can choose.
And choose not just for yourself, but for others.
