When courage calls you to rise above, do you listen?

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Being human has its awkward moments. Its times of feeling like you’re all limbs and misplaced emotions. Times when the fear of ‘being seen’ adds up to your believing you are a big fat zero with little to give and no capacity to achieve anything or to be known for how truly magnificent you are in your human condition.

When I was a little girl there was a story in my family about my birth that caused me unease. But I thought it was funny and being naturally defiant, I kept telling it anyway, not realizing how it hurt my heart until many years (and a lot of therapy) later.

The story goes that my mother wished I was born on December 8, the day of the Immaculate conception which, in her Catholic world was a highly revered date. Instead, I was born two minutes after midnight on the 9th. Disappointment!

My father, wanting a boy, lost a case of beer and $20 because I was a girl. More disappointment!

Which was why my story became cemented in the belief I was always a disappointment. I was unwanted.

And then, one day, I decided to change my birth story. Why should a story told long ago, the details of which were never verified, limit my life a few decades later? Wanting closure on the past, and peace in the present, I decided my birth story was one of being wanted, of being loved and cherished by my parents, of being divinely magnificent in all my human condition. Wounds, flaws, beauty and all.

That story sat better within my heart, mind and spirit.

Still, in moments of unease, of distress and uncertainty, the tendrils of the past seep into my consciousness unbidden. They spiral around the unhealed places, spinning their reminders of what a disappointment I am. How I don’t fit in. I don’t belong. I am unwanted.

In their slithering, uneasy presence, I unconsciously respond from a place of insecurity. Problem is, insecurity is not effective nor objective. It is an emotional interpretation of past stories, fears, doubts,  that undermine my worth in the here and now.

We all have those places within. Those places where the stories we tell or told on ourselves cut us down to little pieces of shame and doubt leaving us fearful to act up to our true magnificence. To live the personal greatness which is our birthright.

it is in those moments of self-doubt, of insecurity and caution that we must bring our courage to bear. That we must breathe into our stories of shame and doubt to live into our true-love story of our life lived free of the past, free of limiting beliefs. To live fearlessly in the truth that we are each magnificent beings experiencing this fragile, beautiful human journey in Love. It is a multi-faceted journey that shimmers in the beautiful light of truth when we let go of believing we are not worthy.

I have been stalked by self-doubt recently. Feelings of less than, unwanted, unneeded have undermined my sense of truth and worth.

I know where it originates, this place of unease.  I know the external forces that have triggered the origin story within me. The one that does not serve me well.

I also know, these feelings are just emotional interpretations of circumstances over which I do have agency, no matter how much the critter would prefer I believe I’m a victim.

In that knowledge I can let go of self-doubt and fear and step once again into the light of knowing, I am a woman of worth. A divine expression of amazing grace living this one, precious life fully capable of expressing my human magnificence freely and lovingly.

Abandoning all need to play small, I rise above my fear and let courage draw me into the divine expression of my most precious and magnificent self today.

Namaste.

 

 

 

 

 

10 thoughts on “When courage calls you to rise above, do you listen?”

  2. If, a big IF, we could only lock the door and throw away the key to our inner self, our subconscious that is the repository of our past that we do not want to surface. I am of the thought that our subconscious, our alter-self, that keeps us on our toes and many times actually gently prods us to do or say what we really should. It acts as a reminder that we should take a second or two to reflect before we take the next step or say the next word. And usually we do not even understand what has transpired. And then, as you have written, it strikes hard and yet we rise above it , once again.

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    • So true Iwona — it has many values, and one of its greatest is it urging to speak up, stand up, get straight with whatever is happening in the now that is stirring up the past. Even in those moments when it does strike hard, it carries gifts. For me, this latest episode has reminded me of my worth and value — it is not determined by outside forces, it is built on my integrity, my willingness to do the right thing. I can’t control outcomes. I can control how I respond to this moment now.

      Much love to you dear friend. Thank you. ❤ (I wish we lived closer. It would be such a gift to spend more time with you.)

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  3. My mother had a bet with her family she’d have me before her birthday. I held out till 1 am on the day. Not only did she lose her bet, she had to share the day for life. I was a high forceps baby too — very malformed head — I’ve had some pretty radical treatments in adulthood for the resulting damage. Not only that, my conception in the first place caused her unhappy marriage to my father as well as her sudden removal from a ducal European house to the worst of the United States Bronx. It took me a long, long time to realize she spent my childhood staunchly fighting against her rabid hatred of my mere existence.

    I think, I feel: Well, she turned me into a poet. Poor, poor woman. It was what she had wanted to be herself…

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  4. I think it is sad that for so long the story of your birth was so negative, sometimes parents don’t get that they are being negative and causing pain to a child they love or should love. My own birth story is one of a survivor because I was born 6 weeks early

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    • Thank you Joanne. I truly don’t believe anyone in my family realized how hurtful that story was — they didn’t do it with intention to create harm. It just was what it was. My grandson was born six weeks early too! He is thriving remarkably well! ❤

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