I can, I will, I am

It's the inevitable question when you go somewhere new, start a job, meet a new group of people ... so, tell us a bit about yourself. I have done a lot of meeting new groups of people recently, and going into new settings, and I am not getting any better at summing myself up in three sentences. Whilst for a GCSE French oral it seemed fairly easy to reel off, "Je m'appelle Stephanie, J'ai 15 ans, J'habite a Burton, une petite ville industrielle situee au centre de l'Angleterre pres de Derby" (which most people I know seem to be able to do in one language or another!) summing up who I really am is definitely a lot more tricky. And as life continues to get richer, and more layers are added to its tapestry, I guess it is only going to get harder.

This poem, is, I suppose, in one sense an attempt to respond to that impossibility of summing up my identity. It began life in response to being asked to finish the three sentences I can ..., I will ... I am ... in a few words each. At which point it looked like this:

I can touch stars hidden deep in my soul

I will live, I will laugh, I will love

I am loved, I am me, I am whole

The version below, grew out of that. 

I can sing a tune that only I know

I can fly off to places that others can’t go

I can be who I am and not need to impress

I can dream in colours no words can express

I can touch the stars hidden deep in my soul

I can, in my brokenness, choose to be whole

I will be the me I am destined to be

I will choose to know limits so I can be free

I will keep walking onwards and follow the road

I will, when I stumble, re-shoulder my load

I will know that the journey itself is the goal

I will, in my brokenness, choose to be whole

I am shifting shadows of darkness and light

I am fragile wings which strive to take flight

I am bathed in blessings that allow me to thrive

I am a child of hope called to be fully alive

I am cradled and carried as ocean waves roll

I am, in my brokenness, loved, valued and whole