COURAGE MONTH: DAY 8: “True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid…”― L. Frank Baum
I would change a single word in this quote. Because I do not believe that there is really anything of “danger” in the world, except as we define it, I would change that word to LIFE.
Danger is a perceptual term, and we use a lot of them. Safety is another one. Neither truly exists in the world when we recognize that your use of these terms, and my use of these terms, can be vastly different from one another.
And our fears are the stories Ego tells us to make it problematic to live. Ego’s only job is to solve problems, so everything must be a problem. Or Ego has to die. Oh no! And on it goes.
Life is the thing that confronts us…every moment of every day. And the stories we tell ourselves about that are interesting. Our culture has programmed us to believe that we are supposed to never age, never change our living situations, never change our jobs, never change our relationships, never change anything, really. But that is not functional.
All of these things change, all of the time. Life and death are going on everywhere and we are growing and learning (I hope!) all the time. So change is the only thing that doesn’t change. And we are always going to be at battle with life if we cling to these cultural norms, which are highly questionable to begin with.
I am a big fan of Einstein. He was masterful in so many ways. But his understanding of the workings of the Universe were unparalleled in my book. And he said, quite often if the stories are true; “Never stop questioning.” And this is what I have lived my life doing. I question all truths that are held or taught or read by me. “Does it resonate with my heart or my mind?” If the first, then I will keep it, if the second, I will not.
We have fear around things that are really not dangerous. And that can destroy our lives if we let it. I’d rather not!
Dolphin Hug 