No one said life is supposed to be easy. We all travel a wanderer's path: obstructions, missing pavement, carnivorous weeds, and blind cul-de-sacs greet our journey.
What we need to remember is who we are. We are spiritual beings on a mystery quest who have chosen the human experience for our learning.
What we must also remember is that our tool for navigating this maze is our free will.
We can choose it all: what we want to believe about the nature of reality, what we want to believe about our own nature, and the decision to wear the coat of courage rather than fear.
Fear is our default position. It grabs us when we are young and continuously lurks in the brush along the path, ready to leap upon us, threatening to devour our very being. It is the source of our suffering, our pain.
It gains its power because we grant it power--we believe that it can overwhelm us, obliterate our self.
This is an illusion. We can choose not to fear fear.
We can choose to observe it without running, without denying, without numbing ourselves in the myriad of activities or substances readily available. We can choose to see ourselves as the gladiator, the warrior who looks back into the face of chaos and lives. In this choice is our healing.
Mindful meditation can be our most valuable weapon. We can breath in and out, witnessing the storm of emotion that surrounds us. We can observe and not succumb. We can see that behind the struggles of life it is fear that threatens us most of all.
When we can observe fear and calmly breath in its face and survive the encounter, we perceive that we have acquired confidence. We can also witness our own courage--the courage to continue the journey that is our life's destiny
No one said it would be easy. But when we choose courage over fear, we are on the path to wisdom and healing.
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