Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Ordinary Courage and Midlife...

Another blog that I discovered and had been meaning to share is "Ordinary Courage" .Just the name itself is Beautiful to me, but their is some real content there.Today I was struck by this little sentence "Midlife is when the universe gently places her hands on your shoulders,pulls you close, and whispers in your ear". Maybe I should do an art journal page about that and what she would be saying to me because about 6 months ago it felt liked she gave me a kick in the A**. I will be turning 40 soon and about 6 months ago I was acting like a lunatic.When I read this excerpt from Brene Brown -
"It’s time. All of this pretending and performing – these coping mechanisms that you’ve developed to protect yourself from feeling inadequate and getting hurt – has to go. Your armor is preventing you from growing into your gifts. I understand that you needed these protections when you were small. I understand that you believed your armor could help you secure all of the things you needed to feel worthy and lovable, but you’re still searching and you’re more lost than ever. Time is growing short. There are unexplored adventures ahead of you. You can’t live the rest of your life worried about what other people think. The time has come to let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are."
I thought wow thats powerful and it is.You ever read something and you think something is here for me? I just need to sit with this and think about this and soak this up for a little while. Brene' is right. we spend the first part of our lives keeping ourselves protected with all kinds of vices and defenses only to find out that this only kept us from our true selves, it hindered our growth. We are taught that we should fit in ,only to discover that true beauty comes when we allow ourselves to stand out and embrace our individuality.I picture it like a flower in youth closed up tight ,protected, but the real beauty is on the inside , when the flower opens fully,only then , can you truly appreciate all it has to offer.


1 comment:

  1. This is lovely... I just don't think that I am truly ready to figure out who I am. I try, but it seems that in the effort I am pulled in the wrong direction. It is my hope that when the time is ripe the right direction will appear and I will be able to follow the path meant for me. Until then I will still try and fail, but in the failing learn.

    Thank you! Hugs ~ Brandi

    ReplyDelete