Storyteller: 100 Poem Letters

by Morgan Harper Nichols

Tell the story of the mountain you climbed. Your words could become a page in someone else’s survival guide.

You have grown, and you are growing, you are breathing, you are living, you are wrapped in endless, boundless, grace. And things will get better. There is more to you than yesterday.

There is beauty and truth even in the seemingly mundane.

So let it go, where you can finally breathe and you finally heal. Morgan Harper Nichols

Keep planting, sowing, living, and knowing beautiful things take time… and that’s okay.

you sowed what you did not need, there is nothing that says you must keep watering those things. Leave them alone. Let them die. Make room to only sow things that bring life.

You have learned to be free. You have learned to be strong. You have held onto light when the night was too long. You have braved many fears. You learned a new song, and through all of these valleys you have learned to stand tall. This year will not end like last year at all.

For the one who’s past rises in his mind far too often: When you stumble on old vices you are free to leave them there, for not everything that rises is worthy of your care. So with every step you take, run a shadow in the ground. Dwell not on darker days for things are different now.

You will learn to see the world from here: a thousand miles above your fears.

For the writer: Writing is a chance to speak to those who don’t feel spoken to, and put into words what the readers thought they were alone in thinking about.

For “Amy,” living in a country far from home: After all this time She is learning to see, she is so much stronger than she thought she would be.

just as there are a hundred unread the books on the shelf there are one hundred things you do not yet know about yourself.

Because far too often the world has felt too big,

Because sometimes it’s just these candid conversations in faithful morning light that remind us we are not alone and we are going to be alright.

Even if the wait carries on another year, I will not get where I am going without first learning to be here.

"I do not know why things turned out this way, but I do know I now have something to say."

For the one moving far away from everything she knows: I hope the simplest of times you have with those you love, the random moment you burst into laughter, and the day you chose to keep smiling for no reason at all, are just little things along the way to remind you all of these moments matter too. And I hope you take that with you, diving deep into the wonder of day, journeying out to sea in boundless ocean blue, wrapped in endless grace, unafraid of uncertainty, approaching bravely the day. I hope you remember every day this way.

Remember that time you smiled for no reason and laughed about something that happened forever ago? Keep doing that.

For “Andrea,” twenty-eight years old: Just because they’re succeeding before you, doesn’t mean they’re succeeding in replacement of you. There will still be a place for you. There will always be a place for you. Morgan Harper Nichols

Do not just wait to be invited to something. Create something. Contribute something. Make something. Do something.

Do what you do for The One who has always been there all along.

The world may be a crowded place, but there is still room for you, room for you to tell your story and to create things and contribute things that make a difference. Your age does not matter. Where you were raised does not matter. You are on this earth for a reason. You are not just taking up space. There will be no perfect moment before you take the leap and speak.