Post by Adesanya Ayotola (@adesanya_ayotola)

THE WEIGHT OF A PROMISE

I have come to realize that many men do not lie when they promise. They simply speak from territories
they have never travelled. They pledge courage
before meeting fear. They promise loyalty
before loneliness arrives. They vow endurance
before suffering introduces itself and they speak of forever having only lived in the comfort of today.

For capacity is a hidden thing. It sleeps quietly within us, unknown even to its owner, until life comes knocking with a test in its hands. The sailor believes he understands himself while standing on the shore. The captain boasts of his strength while the sea is calm but neither truly knows who he is until the storm asks the question and storms are honest examiners. They strip away rehearsed speeches. They ignore reputation. They care nothing for intentions. They reveal.

How strange it is that we often judge people
by their promises, when life judges them by their capacity. For a promise is only a seed. Capacity is the soil and many beautiful seeds never become trees
because the ground beneath them was never prepared.

Perhaps this is why wisdom speaks softly. It has discovered that desire and ability are not twins. That wanting to carry a mountain is different from possessing the strength. That loving a thing
is different from sustaining it and that character is not what a man declares in the sunshine but what remains standing when the winds arrive.

So I have learned to be merciful with people.For sometimes they did not deceive me. Sometimes they simply meet themselves for the first time at the same moment they disappointed me. For many of us do not know who we are until life removes the audience, locks the doors, turns out the lights and leaves us alone with the weight of our own words.

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