Rising Above
the Echoes

by Kimberly C. Jones©

The echoes of voices from the past
still take up space
where they are no longer welcome.

Old habits are hard to break,
old thought patterns rise again—

in times of stress,
in moments of uncertainty,
when the battles you believed you’d won
suddenly feel unfinished.

When you’ve spent your life
measuring your worth
in the eyes of others, there are hours—
in the stillness of night,
in the quiet before morning,
in the fragile space where you search for peace—

when your mind overrides
the lessons you fought to learn,
and you hear the echoes:

Why me?
You’re not that special.
You don’t deserve to be happy.
You will never amount to anything.

The voices of the past speak loudest
when you least expect it—
slipping in through the cracks,
settling into the quiet.

And in those moments,
giving in to them
would be easier
than fighting the same battle
all over again.

But in the stillness of those moments
is where I reach for my strength—
the strength to reclaim myself,
the courage to remember who I am.

Will the voices ever fall silent?
Probably not.

But their volume is no longer truth,
and their echoes are no longer law.

I remember—
the kindness in my heart,
the gentleness in my spirit,
the strength in my character,
the power in my words.

The voices may rise
but so do I.

And so I walk forward—
not untouched,
not unscarred,
but unmistakably mine—

carrying the truth
that healing isn’t silence,
it’s choosing, again and again,
to live louder
than the echoes.