Risking The Dawn

It all starts in bed. The womb. The night is leaving the heavens and there we lay, consciousness and potential action in the prone position. In a reality fraught with chaos, there is danger in any course of action. Simply stepping out of bed invites danger..but then again, so does staying in bed. 

Imagine driving a car on a highway. Both you and the cars surrounding you are each testing the 65 mph speed limit, all under the assumptions that one, the other drivers will fulfill the agreement to not slam into you and two, that the small system called "brakes" will actually stop your multiple thousand pound vehicle from hurling into the wall, or railing, or car, bus, or person ahead of you. It's a tenuous agreement. It's fragile. 

Eating is the same. We are putting our complete trust in those who provide and prepare the our meals that everything will be to healthy standards..that we won't get incredibly sick and or die from consuming the food. This agreement is also tenuous. 

I could go on and on. But the fact is that almost every single one of the things we engage in on a day to day basis is filled with the potential for fatal danger. We also know that the nature of this planet tends to vacillate between relative peace and crushing, raging chaos. 

Our illusions of life's purpose being happiness suddenly falls away in the face of historical fact. It's a dangerous, perilous, and chaotic world. And only the strong of spirit survive. 

It's not always easy to be strong. In fact, it can be outright impossible to manufacture. But that's the secret. It's never something to manufacture. Bravery often times is far less sexy than it's presented to us in television, movies and the like. It's much more about guts, putting your head down and pushing against the onslaught. It's about simply not giving up, ever. 

And love, just like bravery, is far less sexy than we all convince ourselves that it is. Real, ordinary love is exhausting, painstaking work that often makes your feet hurt. It's not the self centered "falling in love" that we've all bought into. It's love as an act of service..as an act of love in itself. Just as real bravery is an act of service to the world, to those around you, and to who you are in your deepest being. 

And so, as we being this week long unpacking of ourselves, let's begin here. With the dawn...the cruel reality of chaos and death around us...and a sense of bravery and love that can endure some of the worst that chaos can dish out. 

​Let's do this...