Be Good. Be Kind. Be Well.
February 24, 2023 | By: TJ Roberts, Kinship Cafe Owner
Life isn’t to be understood, but it is to be experienced despite your fears. I’ve learned what we can experience and how we respond can derive the make up of who we are. I love to give my finances to the less fortunate. Love to give BIG hugs to someone who needs it. Love to share my knowledge with others who want it. Love to connect and give my time to the forgotten crowd/people who seek it. I love to see a smile, so I give it right back!
“GIVE”
“Will I always be afraid of what I could lose? What kind or type of man could I become if I gave it my ALL?”
These are some thoughts I’ve been leaning more into. Whether it was heartache, anger or just sheer turmoil over what to do next. Lately, life hasn’t made it easy for me to “GIVE,” but it’s funny when you dig internally to process how to keep core values of yourself and keep leaning and to keep GROWING.
That’s tough right? At what point does it get better? At what point do I overcome the pain or fear? To be honest, that may be the hardest question to sit and wait to be answered. It’s been a quite challenging year for me as it fell far short of my expectations, I should say...
However, that’s life and there are places where you have to find some acceptance in the loss or pain. As I reflect, there’s things I forget I’ve already accomplished and overcome. You see, when fear, pain, doubt and anxiety come into your path, you end up forgetting or even begin questioning your character. Your make-up, your DNA, your mission, your vision, your goals and dreams.
Just fill in the blank for yourself ___________.
My life has been FULL of “one-offs”.
The one-off chance that I’d grow up as the only black kid in school.
That I’d be adopted and raised by a white family lacking cultural historic values and key people. (I love my family and I know you did the best you could!)
That I’d face trauma and racism in my childhood.
That I’d be made with a heart for music and percussive jams and creativity but wasn’t physically designed for it.
That I’d be just one of a few adaptive athletes to have ever put on a D1 football uniform.
To feeling lost after plans to marry a best friend of 11 years.
The chance I’d be the only African American in the state of Kansas employed by my company.
To be made up of just 4% of my industry.
The cards have always been stacked up plenty against me. The challenges that I chose to overcome were nothing easy to endure or face but the experiences and the growth I gathered while overcoming was and is the monumental foundation of who I am.
I am a “Fighter”.
I don’t quit and I never back down. I’m quick to cast encouragement and to “give.” I will always fight to guard my joy! With a bold list of cards against me, I found what I was made of and made for. To “give.”
We can all relate to pain, dysfunction, misplacement or disappointment to some degree, so just hear me out...
“Be Good. Be Kind. Be Well.”
