We all want safety and security. Vulnerability, uncertainty, instability, and exposure all seem very menacing. We all want to protect those near and dear to us. Yet like so many things in life, the law of unintended consequences can kick in for the greatest risk of all is to run no risk at all. In the short run perhaps we achieve a temporary sense of security, but in the long run: stagnation, decline, and eventual ruin.
We MUST advance, we MUST grow, and we MUST push back frontiers of the body, spirit, and mind. Problems must be confronted, issues dealt with, trouble faced. In short, we must go to the places that scare us, march forward into the unknown, walk onto shaky ground. When was the last time you confronted a core fear?
Closing Quotes:
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” – Joseph Campbell, 1904-1987
“Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.” – M. Scott Peck, 1936 –2005, The Road Less Traveled, p.30
“We always have a choice, we can let the circumstances of our lives harden us and make us increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder. Wisdom is always available to us but we usually block it with habitual patterns rooted in fear.” – Pema Chödrön, p. 1936
Footnote: “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers is an excellent resource
As always, I share what I most want/need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier