Morgan Harper Nichols: My Greatest Inspiration
As you read in my last post, my interest in poetry took off in 2018. This was a particularly challenging season of life, and I learned that I was able to find a lot of meaning in faith-based poetry. As I was on Pinterest one day, I came across this poem by Morgan Harper Nichols, a Christian author and songwriter:
At first, I did not know much about her, but as time went on, I continued to read her poems on Pinterest and Instagram. I saw how beautiful her work was. It was so full of color and showed flowers and city skylines. Her words were written so eloquently, yet they reflected a theme about finding beauty and joy even in the most ordinary moments. It drew me in and made me want to learn more about her creative background.
Morgan is also a singer/songwriter, and she hosts a weekly podcast. As as I was listening to it one day, she said that she didn’t know that the above poem would reach thousands of people. She put it on Pinterest when she was going through a difficult time, but when she checked back on it months later, she realized that this poem touched many lives. At one point, she thought that she should pursue music full-time. However, the work she put on her social media platforms gave her the assurance that she should continue sharing her artwork and poetry. Now, she has two published books, “Storyteller” and “All Along You Were Blooming.” (I have both!)
Morgan completely changed the way that I look at life. Before I discovered her, I felt like I was always striving toward something, like a goal or a time in my running. And while these are good things to have in mind, Morgan showed me that while life is full of lots of mountains and valleys, it also has in-between moments. I am free to live this beautiful life that God gave me to the fullest, even if it feels like things aren’t going my way. I am allowed to celebrate how far I’ve come and to look forward to all that is to come.
Morgan inspired me to perhaps publish a book of my own someday. And while I have my own artistic and poetic styles, I aspire to leave people feeling refreshed and inspired, just like Morgan did for me.
