Friday, July 29, 2005
Are you living a Courageous Life?
Courage is living the life that you design, not living out of the expectations and programming of others. Courage is living out of your own personal truth, what is real for you, what is consistent with your principles and best judgments.
Living a courageous life means that you will often be required to make choices outside your current reality of knowing. Learning to be comfortable as you walk in the energy of "I don't know" and "I am committed to discovering what works for me" is necessary to live courageously...always exploring, redefining with new distinctions and discoveries.
Courage demands that you take the time to do the research that reveals your principles, your precepts for living with qualities that define who you are and what you stand for. It requires that you take stands that may be different or in conflict with those of others around you. Sometimes you may be unable to explain or defend your position but can feel a body sensation in your middle that says "yes" or "no". Admitting that you have no other reason for your stand than that can feel awkward and uncomfortable.
Years ago I asked someone to leave my home because of a behavior that I assessed as outside my boundaries of integrity and caring for the welfare of another guest. There was much resistance and disparaging opinions spoken about my being unreasonable. However, I held my stand, stating that I didn't need his agreement, that for me the behavior was unacceptable.
I didn't have any interaction with the person I evicted for years and then one day, out of the blue, he called saying that he had known exactly what I was reacting to all those years before. I don't know the reason for his amends, but I realized that I hadn't needed his apology to affirm the strength of my integrity muscle. It was as though the little bell that acknowledges when angels get their wings in that trusty holiday movie had been rung. It was a gift of validation from my angels.
M. Scott Peck wrote in The Road Less Traveled the lines written by Robert Frost,
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by.
And that has made all the difference."
I sense he was speaking about living a courageous life, a life that matters and that is regularly being explored and re-defined as one matures and embraces life's experiences.
Living a courageous life means that you will often be required to make choices outside your current reality of knowing. Learning to be comfortable as you walk in the energy of "I don't know" and "I am committed to discovering what works for me" is necessary to live courageously...always exploring, redefining with new distinctions and discoveries.
Courage demands that you take the time to do the research that reveals your principles, your precepts for living with qualities that define who you are and what you stand for. It requires that you take stands that may be different or in conflict with those of others around you. Sometimes you may be unable to explain or defend your position but can feel a body sensation in your middle that says "yes" or "no". Admitting that you have no other reason for your stand than that can feel awkward and uncomfortable.
Years ago I asked someone to leave my home because of a behavior that I assessed as outside my boundaries of integrity and caring for the welfare of another guest. There was much resistance and disparaging opinions spoken about my being unreasonable. However, I held my stand, stating that I didn't need his agreement, that for me the behavior was unacceptable.
I didn't have any interaction with the person I evicted for years and then one day, out of the blue, he called saying that he had known exactly what I was reacting to all those years before. I don't know the reason for his amends, but I realized that I hadn't needed his apology to affirm the strength of my integrity muscle. It was as though the little bell that acknowledges when angels get their wings in that trusty holiday movie had been rung. It was a gift of validation from my angels.
M. Scott Peck wrote in The Road Less Traveled the lines written by Robert Frost,
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by.
And that has made all the difference."
I sense he was speaking about living a courageous life, a life that matters and that is regularly being explored and re-defined as one matures and embraces life's experiences.
