the world taught me to be quiet

The world taught me to be quiet

before I learned the power of sound.

It placed silence upon my lips

and told me not to shake the ground.

“Stay small,” it said. “Do not question.

Know your place. Do not stand too tall.”

So I folded dreams beneath my chest

and learned to disappear behind the wall.

But dreams are seeds beneath the soil;

bury them, and still they grow.

Every wound became a lesson,

every fear began to let me go.

I watched the fearless speak their truth

while I swallowed words like stones.

Then one day, I heard my heartbeat

and realized my voice was my own.

I began with a whisper—

soft enough for doubt to hear.

Then louder came my courage,

pushing through the walls of fear.

Now I do not ask permission

to become what I was made to be.

I carry storms within my spirit,

but they no longer frighten me.

I am not the silence they created.

I am the voice they could not tame.

And if the world has never heard your voice,

will you whisper—

or finally become the thunder?

Remember you are not the echo

You are the sound.

God bless