Well, hello there. It's Morgan Harper-Nichols here. I'm an artist and a writer, and this is a space where I turn the lens on various topics and subjects and hopes to learn something new or see something in a new way.

Today's episode is called The Beautiful and Necessary Work of Learning to Be Your Honest Self. Thank you so much for listening. I'm

Morgan Harper Nichols. And now for a short poem that I wrote called The Daring Work of Living

Honestly. Let go into your bloom, even if it means outgrowing the spaces where there was no room for you.

Let go into your bloom. Let go into your bloom.

This is a topic that I am very passionate about and the following words are the

words that I wrote to arrive at that short piece. Let this be the season. You do the daring work

of being honest with yourself. Ask yourself the question, am I doing what I'm doing right now

for a reason beyond pleasing other people? Is it possible that I am trying to win a game

where they keep moving the goalposts? Depending on where you are in life, you might find it hard to answer these questions.

They may even breed more questions.

If you weren't focused on people pleasing, then how would it impact your career?

How would it change the dynamics of your most intimate relationship?

What would people think? What would they say?

There are no easy answers, but wherever you are in life, you will always need to carve out space to ask the big questions and check in with yourself.

You were not made to stay asleep. You were made to

wake up and come alive. Even when you are afraid, you are meant to learn to dig deeper anyway.

Two things can be true at once. You can be afraid or uncertain of the future and also know that there is more to

your story than what you can see right now. You can be afraid and say, I don't know what lies ahead. I don't know

what lies before me, but I know that the way I've been living, trying to fit myself worth into a box that everyone will approve of

isn't the way. I know that where I am right now is not all there is. You may feel like you have

invested so much time in trying to be everything to everyone, but it's not too late for you. At any

...