In the growing
light of dawn she stands on the edge of a magnificent river,
A silhouette of calmness as she peruses her
horizon,
She has
traveled far,
From the cold
depths of winter, through the hot roils of summer,
Her history is partly
written in the sands of the Sphinx,
The obsidian
that tore her innocence away,
She struggled
through the wilderness, crouched in darkness,
Moving with the
shadows,
But drawn and
guided by the sun by day,
She broke to the
periphery of the thicket,
Walking along
the edge of her salvation,
She felt the
dawn before the light,
But memory was
cruel,
For though she
had arrived, her eyes did not see what was before her,
The Artists
hands that molded her in her journey,
The Maker of her
destiny,
He knew her
legacy,
He took the
smallest point of light and transformed it into sight,
And now, here
she stands, in that very spot,
At the edge of a
magnificent river, perusing her horizon,
She’s looking
across the Jordan,
And she finally
sees the promise before her,
She smiles
And from within
her, she begins to purr,
A voice that
matures into a rumble,
It is not a mere
outburst of sound, but a graduated performance,
She knows who
she is, she knows her path has led her here,
And all she has
gained is rightly hers
So when she
throws her head back and lets it go,
Her roar rolls
like thunder
Her voice is a
fearless proclamation of protection,
She lives what
is within her out loud,
And all the
intangibles of faith, hope and love
Become tangible
when she sings,
Her voice
resonates with the dominion given to her by her Creator,
And reverberates
in many an echo in the far distance,
She knows the
light that guides her will forever soothe her inner kitty,
He has made her
an heiress,
A majestic
beauty beheld in her graceful walk,
The dignified
look of strength and courage in her eyes,
Do not mistake
her meekness for weakness,
For it is
absolute power, under perfect control
It is tempered
strength and poised might,
There will be no
mistaking her incredible beauty and her fierce valor,
For she knows
where she has come from,
And she has used
it as a stepping stone to where she is going,
Her Maker has
fashioned a stunning legacy,
And within her
His Spirit is unleashed,
She is the
pinnacle of hunting prowess and her roar is an exulting cry,
For hers is a
song of freedom,
A lioness
arising to the Promised Land,
And she dares to
realize all she was created to be.
-Wilhelmine
Wachter-
Beauty turns to ashes 
That quote left an imprint on my mind and i wondered if we really live life to the fullest? Do we become all that we were created or meant to be? The world that we live in today is filled with people who are simply trying to fit in and in the process loosing their individuality. The brilliant are toned down in this sea of mediocre, in any case we are all brilliant in some thing, in some way, yet we are made to believe that if you lack brilliance in something someone else is brilliant in that means you are totally dull- right? well No! as unique as your finger prints and DNA are so are your talents. We all have tremendous "potential" and sometimes that is all there is until we get old and die some day, with a lot of potential, untapped, never utilized, just dormant potential.
The truth is conformity starts at a very early stage in life, even from childhood and someone ended up coining the term "peer pressure" and truth be told that animal doesn't go away even in adulthood. Society paints a picture of what's cool and what is not and the media plays a crucial role in this regard. Teenagers are told to believe that it's cool to party all day, do drugs, get high and drunk, have sex, sag their pants and talk in a certain way which is "totally cool". The kids that would go against the grain face a terrible time among their peers, from being ridiculed and shunned because they are not as "cool" as the kids that are portrayed as cool. Because we are social creatures we feel a great need to fit in and even be popular if we can but there is always a price we pay and in most cases we sacrifice who we truly are!
These social pressures never improved anyone's life neither can we find any value to them when weighed in the balance of life. We desire greatness when we behold it, all polished up and shinny like a finished sculpture but we never take the time to think of the process. The hands bruised with the hammer and chisel, the focus written on the artist's face until his/her masterpiece is done. That is what is lacking in the world, people who are willing to take a shot at it no matter how difficult it might seem. Non-conformists who will go against the current and emerge the truly great people of our generation. People who are not constrained by what others expect of them but rather stand firm on what they believe is right and loose the weight of societal baggage that most people needlessly carry on their shoulders for all their lives without realizing any satisfaction from it and if asked why they became who they are they can not come up with a convincing explanation but that "that's just how things are!" Strive Masiyiwa the founder of Econet Wireless once said in one of his testimonies talking about how Econet was founded and established and the many challenges he faced, he said "i was willing to pay the price."
You can never stand out when you are always trying to fit in. It is not an easy task to "walk the path less traveled" but it is that uncommon path that will lead to an uncommon destiny.That path that will lead to greatness that the world has never known. Imagine what the world would be like for African Americans if Dr Martin Luther King jnr or Malcolm X had decided to fit in with the crowd of their time? Or what if Steve Jobs the founder of Apple had decided to go along with his peers and just do what everyone else in IT was doing at the time? Imagine if Thomas Edison had quit on the light bulb? Imagine today what the telecoms industry in Zimbabwe would look like if Strive Masiyiwa or Miko Rwayitare the founder of Telecel had given up on dreams of owning a Telecommunications company when the current and all odds were against them?
