What do you fear most in this life?
This is the opening line of a book recommended by a dear friend, “The Great Work of Your Life” by Stephen Cope.
Rare is it that I get completely stuck in the first question of a book, unable to move to the next sentence because I know this question needs my full attention.
How often do we refuse to look at this question? Refuse to sink beneath its surface and go into the dark space of its existence. To explore with wholehearted curiosity the very thing that we fear most in this life.
Yet, in considering this question, I was aware that the answer to it was also the answer to my own liberation.
This primal fear, this secret part of me, unattended to, dictates my choices, my thinking, my responses, and in so doing, cultivates a half-life.
I do not want to live a half-life. I do not want to live with a thing, unexplored, calling the shots. Rather to go deep into those dark places, an explorer, a scientist, a mystic, and look my fear square in the eye.
I see you. I know you. Your reign over my life has ended.
February 23rd 2019
Photo taken February 23rd 2019
