The Mentors Pen

[Music]

i can feel my four-year-old heart

breaking my four-year-old stomach

aching as jamaica with all her smells

heat and uncertainties fill every pore

of my little being sad

and scared i never could have seen where

i am today

through those tear streak dies for the

next six years

without a father in sight my mother gone

to educate herself so i

can have a better future i was passed

from one relative’s home

to another always

feeling like a guest

always visiting but never

belonging now those are the first few

chapters of my life’s journey

chapters written by others holding

powerful pens

who started writing my story even though

you

you ultimately become the the author

throughout each chapter of your life

there’s been someone else’s pen

that has written a few words or a few

lines

in your book of life we didn’t get to

where we are today

and we will not get to where we’re going

by ourselves

no one journeys alone

you know whether you realize it or not

we’re all holding a powerful pen that we

used to write in someone else’s book

influencing how their journey in life

may turn out

i really believe the world is like one

big book club and we’re all

everyone’s just adding a line or two or

more

to each other’s stories this

is why i think it’s important for us to

remember the power

we’re holding in that pen of ours

a pen that changes life stories now in

joseph campbell’s famous

heroes journey there’s a part where the

hero of the story arrives at the meeting

the mentor moment

where a few lines get written into the

the hero’s book that guides them in the

right direction

just helping them to find their path i

believe

we all have the power to be that mentor

just helping others write better stories

for themselves

now i remember the day the meeting the

mentor moment became so so clear to me

as i stood beside this hero struggling

on his journey in chapter 38 of my book

i meet a young man who is known to the

police as this notorious car

thief now he really didn’t fit the

stereotypical profile of what we think

a notorious car thief looks like he was

he was vertically challenged quite stout

innocent looking

as long as he wasn’t sitting in the

driver’s seat of your car

i i remember the day we we discovered

that we both had a passion

for aquariums and tropical fish you know

we were standing in this pet store

together

birds were squawking aquariums bubbling

when he began telling me the most

detailed

characteristics of each of the fish

now i i was new to mentoring at that

moment at that time but i knew i had to

start

feeding his passion i use it as a hook

to

redirect his attention to focusing on

a more positive hobby just so to say

our young man he truly he began spending

more time at home just caring

for his new finned friends

he began opening up just having long

conversations

sharing his vast knowledge about fish

he literally ditched hanging out

stealing cars and it wasn’t too long

before the ministry of children and

family

were calling checking in on him just

wondering why they hadn’t received any

sort of critical incident reports about

him

that was the moment i realized

how a few simple uncomplicated

non-clinical non-academic lines

written in his book encourage him to

want to write a better story for himself

now i know what it’s like to want to

write a better story for yourself

i i didn’t stay in jamaica my mom’s pen

started writing my story of

of you know my experience of moving to

canada

where a few amazing mentors would help

me

write a better story for myself and that

story was all about becoming a football

star in the cfl

like i said no one journeys

alone now for me it started

with dave now dave was a former football

player who mentored me through positive

words and speech

next it was my football coach bill

who encouraged me and and and helped me

mentored me by providing opportunities

and finances

where need be now after bill was coach

coach doug

who mentored me by encouraging me

and teaching me the importance of of

being prepared in life

each one of them with their mighty pens

helped me to write chapters

in my life that had so many successes

and experiences

and those successes and experiences made

my story turn out

so much better and now my present mentor

a

great prophet of god my pastor

because of these great men my mentors

with their mighty pens

chapter 39 of my book of life i became

the co-founder of the pathfinder youth

center society

along with my wife ruth where we still

mentor

at-risk youth and i tell you i remember

a young man

who came to our our job training and

mentorship program

no hope he had no hope never smiling

low self-esteem health issues and

just no direction now

10 years later he’s full of confidence

he smiles he went back to school he’s

now peer mentor

for other youth in our programs and he

runs a really cool coffee shop called

bean

and a bookstore actually called being

around books

he’s went back to school he’s become a

mentor for other youth in our programs

he’s also created a business that helps

other at-risk youth

talk about writing it forward a few

simple uncomplicated non-clinical

non-academic lines creating that meeting

a mentor moment

just helping them to want to write

better stories for themselves

now we didn’t get to where we are today

and we will not get to where we’re going

by ourselves

no one journeys alone

you know the awful truth is this

most of us have chapters in our lives we

don’t want anyone to read and some of

those chapters

we play and just want to just rip them

out and just rewrite them

but you see those are the chapters

that connects us

most of us have chapters written about

some sort of trauma abuse

abandonment or addiction and it’s

through

sharing sharing the lessons learned

during

those tough times the hard chapters in

our lives

sharing the story of how you made it

through

that that can become a part of

somebody’s survival guide

this is what mentoring is

it’s deciding with purpose

the lines you’re going to write in

another person’s book just

helping them to write better stories for

themselves

now back in chapter 40 2004 i’m

introduced to this young lady from

afghanistan

slim built laser-focused eyes she’d been

assaulted

she escaped death from the taliban she

was assaulted molested

she lived through school bombings

now despite her situation she was she

was filled with a lot of

energy and a lot of hope

and i might have been trying to mentor

her through finding

positive pathways in her life but really

and truly let me tell you

it was her that was mentoring me in

tenacity and courage

and then keeping hope alive in dark

times

she won the 2020 courage to come back

award

and now she has her own foundation that

gives

voice to the voiceless women of

afghanistan

with her powerful pen she’s now writing

in the book of life

of so many individuals here and around

the world throughout the world

through that non-profit organization on

her hero’s journey

she too is writing it forward

now when it comes to changing a life for

the better

a positive pen can truly

be mightier than a damaging sword we’re

all heroes on our journey sometimes

meeting a mentor sometimes

being that mentor someone needs to meet

with powerful pens in hand let’s let’s

decide

with a purpose the powerfully positive

words

we write in another person’s book

helping them

to want to write better stories for

themselves because

we did not get to where we are today and

we will not

get to where we’re going by ourselves

because

no one journeys alone

thank you

you