Be Yourself
“to be nobody – but – yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.” ee comings
This is a quote that I have saved for years and unearthed it the other day when cleaning files in my office. As those of you who know me, know that I am one who takes that bit of wisdom seriously. I am not a crowd follower or pleaser unless it is something that resonates within me. I stand up for those things which are important to me and often challenge those that I feel are worthy of the challenge. This sometimes brings me closer to people or for others, further distanced.
I have come to know that in this life, I can only be true to me – as Shakespeare said it so eloquently, “ This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
So I will encourage you to stand up for who you really are and be yourself! Sometimes that means others may not like you, but the whole world won’t like you or me, and thankfully so, I’d hate to have a world full of “me’s.”
But I take cummings statement a little differently and change the words slightly: “to be nobody – but – yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to choose to be at peace with who you are, ever changing for your highest good, stand fast with all the courage you can muster, and never waver.”
I encourage you to ponder the quotes above and see what meaning shows up for you. Then please let me know – I love it when I hear from readers whether the article caused them to ponder and the results of the pondering!
Margaret Martin © 2016