“Always do what you are afraid to do.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Have you ever had the curiosity, or even taken the time, energy and effort to understand what frightens you? Most of us don’t really give it much thought until we are confronted with those shadows of fear, sometimes buried since our childhood. We bury those unmentionable fears, with layers and layers of false security giving rise at some time in our lives to a feeling of well being. Then one day in a split second . . . it all returns sending us into a dark, spiraling vortex of terror. Yes . . . this does happen to many people, more than we know. Having a certain amount of concern for our safety, and taking measured precautions to that end is understandable and naturally warranted, in most instances . . . encouraged. However, there are those and maybe you have identified as one of them, that seem to be propelled by desperation rather than inspiration living with regret, judgment, or remorse. While there still exists breath in your existence Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests, “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
We appear to live our measured lives driven by those interminable lists of things to accomplish, places to go, continents to see or conquer, other peoples visions, wishes or personal desires. In the Science of Mind a passage states . . . “Choose today to be your day to live your passions, hopes and dreams.” Choose today to purchase your ticket for the greatest show on earth. Choose to be in the center of this thing called your life.” This desire doesn’t generate from anyone else but you, and with conscious awareness you are quite capable of mastery over mediocrity . . . right here, right now. Bringing light to your own life, is the basic ingredient which ignites illumination within and around you. Why would anyone wish to be around an individual who projects veneer relationships, broken promises, or a propensity for darkness?
We are each instruments of our own construction, or destruction and must take responsibility for the outcome. We’re not going to succeed in this journey we call life, if we don’t try and give up before we even start at whatever stage we find ourselves. Will light be entwined in all that you are, have become and accomplished? Will those that have been touched by you feel that you have made a difference in their lives, because in the flicker of a moment you decided to make a difference in your own? In just an instant your consciousness reflects all that you are, and your life can change because you have shifted ever so slightly the truth of your beliefs. Fear is steeped in our consciousness without definition for long periods, and with the words of Rainer Maria Rilke may be released with this thought . . . “Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” JLR