Crying For What You Carry

By Emmanuel Uduak-Obong Esther

There is a kind of poverty that has nothing to do with money. The poverty of self-belief. It is quiet, invisible, and far more dangerous than any material lack.

I once sat with a colleague who had reduced herself to nothing in her own mind. Talented, capable, full of potential she could not see. She called herself useless. Empty. Done. She was none of those things.

The truth is this: no one arrives in this world without something valuable placed inside them. Your experiences, your perspective, your capacity to think, to feel, to create. These are not accidents. They are assets. And unlike money, no economic crisis can wipe them out.

The problem is not that people lack wealth. The problem is that they have stopped looking for it in the right place.

Your thoughts shape your reality more than your circumstances do. Feed them with intention. Speak to yourself with the same grace you would offer someone you love. Remind yourself daily of what you carry, not what you lack.

You were not created empty. The wealth in you is real, it is present, and it has been there all along.

The only question worth asking is whether you are willing to believe it.