For many of you who follow this blog, you know I am usually giving advice or encouraging a brave approach to life.  I have always admired the brave and the adventurous and their zest for life.   I stand now needing to hear my own advice.  To be brave requires the strength of a herd of a thousand elephants and often it is easy to want to turn back and take the path of the known.  We all have those little voices living in our head telling us to “get back in line, stop being foolish and that we will fail.” They rattle our minds and tear at our spirit and ask “who in the hell do you think you are?”

Personally, my fear is based on ending up alone and making mistakes.  I put on my brave face, sit at my computer and speak of bravery but my little voice will ask do I have what it takes to walk my walk.  Do I have the fortitude to go it alone if need be?  I wonder about convictions and the strength it requires to stand true to one’s self in the face of doubt and that little voice that wants us to turn back.  I think of those who have risked their very lives to stand in their truth standing tall against any and all onslaught.

The demons come at night and make me cower and want to revert to all that I know.  My soul will not let them win.  It is the soul that is our companion in strength.  It is the soul that urges us on when we are scared or tired. We all are here on this planet for a purpose and we have our unique paths to walk. We may attempt to fit ourselves into a mold where we know we will not fit.  We are told that is what we are supposed to do, to be and to desire.  We fear the isolation of being the outcast, the oddball.

I understand that I must stand in my convictions and be prepared to accept whatever may come my way.  I have chosen the path of self knowing and it can be filled with rocks  boulders and thorns.  I also understand that I may fail.  I may lose all that I know but I will never regret trying.  To live a life without risk or passion is to begin to die.  To accept what is not ours is the key to misery and to crawl back into the box of comfort is to lose faith in ourselves.  I say to you to be brave and I will say it to me as well.

Scared Turtle in Shell — Image by © Sabet Brands/Corbis