There was a time when all my friends seemed to be succeeding in their writing apart from me.
One of them won the Caine Prize for African writing, another won the Africa Region Commonwealth Short story Prize, another spent a year in Senegal being mentored by great West African writers.
They were in the newspapers and they were soaring, from upcoming writer to well-known writer.
It was not until I gave birth to my first born and I detached myself from the outcome of my desires and began to truly look inward, that the Beverley Nambozo Poetry Award began. I became unstoppable. Without searching for it or pining for the recognition, it came in floods.
Journalists sought me. People invited me to places to speak. Schools honoured me as an icon and many people began to shed off their own inhibitions and establish themselves as poets and arts entrepreneurs.
Marianne Williamson said that when we let our lights shine, we give others permission as well.
I searched inward and not outward, and the results were magnanimous.
It is so easy to become distracted when it appears that everyone around you is succeeding and you are left longing for validation.
Search inward to what is meaningful to you. Search inward to what is valuable and important to you. The rest will follow.
And you will be elevated into greater ideas, into spaces with esteemed people all over the world.
And all that you dreamed will come in like a flood.
Manchester BBC Radio, 2013
And your dreams will grow bigger, as yoiu help others grow their dreams as well.
With David Oyelowo, 2015
Bless!
Bev
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