Member-only story
What the Wind Keeps Saying
When someone compliments me, I usually smile, say thank you, and then immediately try to hand part of the compliment back.
Maybe that sounds familiar.
For a long time, I didn’t know what to do with compliments because they never seemed to match the picture I carried of myself. If someone said I was smart, kind, resilient, or talented, I could quickly find evidence to argue against it.
The biggest lie I ever told myself wasn’t that I would fail.
It was that my potential was limited.
Not impossible.
Not hopeless.
Just smaller than it really was.
I think a lot of people tell themselves that lie. We decide who we are before life has a chance to show us who we could become. Then we mistake those limits for reality.
Then life keeps handing us evidence that the outline was never real.
If I were the wind’s interpreter, I think the wind would have a simple message.
It would whisper:
“Keep going.”
Not because you’ve arrived.
Not because you’re behind.
Not because you’re broken.
