I'm Major Jackson, and this is the slowdown.

Sometimes I walk down the street, rooting for myself.

Sometimes it takes being in your own corner.

Especially when faced with a challenge for which nothing less than an attitude of absolute confidence will do.

Today's poem is all about self-blessing.

Far from boasting or ego-tripping, the speaker makes an incantation out of self-affirmation.

I know who I am because I believe it.

The breath in my chest, insistent in its choice.

The skin that I'm in, the bones and blood and veins, it carries like a promise.

Have you witnessed the ocean moving with so much gust and life?

Have you witnessed the river still waters bubbling the rebirth of school?

Have you witnessed your body, its own country of water, moving against the tide of a world so heartbreaking?

It's forgotten its own voice.

Be still, friend.

Be still.

Be kind to yourself in the gift of stillness.

I know who I am because I believe it.

I know, I know who I.

Who I believe believe believe.

In threes we will come.

A drip of water moving against a boulder.

Water slow and steady can turn rock into a pebble like anxiety.

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