Despair Has a Voice

By: Cassandra Green

Despair has a voice. 
It whispers then it shrieks

It’s cruel and writhes
Feeling ghastly and gruesome
It wants you to feel hideous too

A strategic hunter
It lingers and waits
Impatiently but ever so patiently too
It loves a good old fashion sag in ones posture

Despair preys on the weary
Or the one about to be weary
Taunting the mind with doubt 
For the one willing to listen
The one shamed by their own thought to start

Discouragement is its song, 
Yes, despair loves a good ballad
It hums in expectancy and pulls down the curtain
For the show must go on, especially when one is crying
Heinous and shaming, despair will rename you

Because it is selfish
Manipulating the story
Rewriting the dread for worse and worse
Dramatizing the scene, repeating everything

It will make you selfish and blind you before you have a chance to see that really the only way to break its terrible grip is to call out the lie and own the truth that life isn’t perfect, but it isn’t meant to be terrifying either. Despair takes your breath while you are still breathing, but it has no control over your lungs. Only you do. Only you do. Only you can choose to breathe. 

To breathe. 

To see. 

To live

And defy

The lie

Because you’re worth this. 
This battle.
This field.
This valley.
This ugly thought of discouragement.

Because discouragement is not only a friend to despair, it’s also related to owning the lesson and learning and growing. It’s an indirect signal that you’re not just staying still. You’re actually moving. And you can’t be stuck when you’re moving. And you can’t stay in the valley if you’re walking through it. 

But. 
You also can’t take despair with you where you’re going. 
And you can’t take discouragement either. 
You have to grip the learning, dig your feet into the muddy soil and find the light at the end of the tunnel.