I write and I contemplate the untested and untried possibilities. To consider “what could have been” is a sword to the heart.
…
See –
the look in your eyes
the wind in your hair
the love in your heart
the peace in your prayer.
…
Once you have tried the wonderful life of the brave, you will wonder why you spent so long hiding out, clamoring in a corner, too cautious to really go after the things your heart was longing for you to do.
Fear –
always upon me, catching my breath, making my stomach drop.
The stubborn fear that lingers and pervades.
The unspoken fear that haunts my dreams.
The insidious fear that complicates my soul.
The heartbreaking fear that makes me want to run to my room and cry.
All of these fears –
picked up and contaminating one another, trading secrets amongst themselves.
The fear-mongerers are sharing strategies for keeping me afraid. They know my buttons and how to push them – oh, so many ways.
The thing is – I’m not sure how to write about them. I’m daunted by the task.
See? Another fear.
It’s one fright after the next. You think you’ve eliminated one, and then five more spring up to take its place.
How to contain the fears? Is containment the wrong approach? Maybe slaughter is better? Or surrender? Or escape?
Chasing the fears away gets tiring. Maybe it’s best just to invite them in.
Oh, drat. Another fear! They never stop. Who knew I was a girl living with so many reasons for being afraid? It’s a wonder I can even get out of bed.
The best approach seems to be to keep things simple. Simple and wise. That’s the way for me.
Perhaps being fearless is not the thing to aim for. Perhaps the better thing – the more human thing – is to be afraid, but to do the thing your heart is calling you to do anyway. That’s where courage where comes in.
Courage – from the Latin cor, meaning “heart.” To be a person of courage is to be a person of heart. The valor of a deep-feeling heart can withstand many obstacles.
That means, the question is not – when will you stop being afraid? But rather – what will you do to ennoble your heart, making it big enough to accommodate your fears, but also wise enough to help you see when they’re leading you astray?
Once you begin to ignore their crooked counsels, you can finally set out toward becoming the person you’ve been longing to be.