Cargo by Greg Kimura

You enter life a ship laden with meaning, purpose and gifts
sent to be delivered to a hungry world.
And as much as the world needs your cargo,
you need to give it away.
Everything depends on this.

But the world forgets its needs,
and you forget your mission,
and the ancestral maps used to guide you
have become faded scrawls on the parchment of dead Pharaohs.
The cargo weighs you heavy the longer it is held
and spoilage becomes a risk.
The ship sputters from port to port and at each you ask:
“Is this the way?”
But the way cannot be found without knowing the cargo,
and the cargo cannot be known without recognizing there is a way,
and it is simply this:
You have gifts.
The world needs your gifts.
You must deliver them.

The world may not know it is starving,
but the hungry know,
and they will find you
when you discover your cargo
and start to give it away.

Cargo

Here is a metaphor to consider: your life a ship, laden with meaning, purpose, and gifts. Makes me think of the old sailing ships crossing the ocean, laden with precious contents. Kimura is clear that the world is hungry for your cargo, that you need to give it away. Everything depends on this. The gravitas of such a statement catches my attention.

If you hold onto it, you become weighted with this cargo and spoilage becomes a risk. You may forget what you carry, lose your way, but, he is reminding us, we each have gifts that are needed in this world. You must deliver them; again this imperative. This is the way we come to recognize our innate wisdom, abilities, strengths, through sharing them with others.

There are those who are hungry for what you have to offer even if the world may not know it is starving. When you come to know what gifts you contain, and start to give it away, the hungry will find you. It can take a lifetime to discover your unique capacities, but when you do and begin to share them, how much richer the world will be. Everything depends on this.