Be Yourself

by Ellen Bailey

Why would you want to be someone else

When you could be better

by being yourself

Why pretend to be someone you are not

When you have something they haven’t got

Cheating yourself of the life you have to live

Deprives others of that only which you can give

You have much more to offer by being just you

Than walking around in someone else’s shoes

Trying to live the life of another is a mistake

It is a masquerade; nothing more than a fake

Be yourself and let your qualities show through

Others will love you more for being just you

Remember that God loves you just as you are

To Him you are already a bright shining star

Family and friends will love you more too

If you spent time practicing just being you

How to Improve Yourself

Anonymous

Let each man learn to know himself;

To gain that knowledge let him labor

To improve those failings in himself

Which he condemns so in his neighbor.

How lenient our own faults we view,

And conscience’s voice adeptly smother;

Yet, oh, how harshly we review

The self-same failings in another!

And if you meet an erring one

Whose deeds are blamable and thoughtless,

Consider, ere you cast the stone,

If you yourself are pure and faultless.

Oh, list to that small voice within,

Whose whisperings oft make men confounded,

And trumpet not another’s sin;

You’d blush deep if your own were sounded.

And in self judgment if you find

Your deeds to others are superior,

To you has Providence been kind,

As you should be to those inferior.

Example sheds a genial ray

Of light which men are apt to borrow;

So first improve yourself today

And then improve your friends tomorrow.

I Love Being Me

by Gemma Hayton

I can’t run the fastest

I can’t swim the sea

I can’t type the quickest

but I love being me

I can’t kick a ball

or even climb a tree

I can’t roll in the grass

but I still love being me

You see, this is my life

as others would see

they don’t know what it’s like

to really be me

So next time I’m about

rolling down the street

don’t think of me disabled

but someone cool to meet

I have lots I can teach you

I have loads I can share

you will never gain my wisdom

if you just point and stare

So maybe I can’t run the fastest

maybe I can’t kick a ball

but I wouldn’t change being me

not for you, not at all

The Guest House

Rumi

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.