This is the courageous life

I don’t want us to be fearless or shameless.
Nor do I even think that is possible.

I want us to feel our feelings.
To welcome them in as the temporary visitors they are meant to be.
To name them correctly.
To speak them out loud to someone who loves us well.
To befriend them.
To sit at the table with them and commune.
To remind our feelings that, yes, they are valid, and sometimes they also lie to us, most especially when they are coming from past harm, hurt, and trauma.
To meet them with love and grace and truth.
To move our bodies so they can move through us.

To deny them is to be owned by them.
To judge them is to abandon ourselves.
To be overwhelmed by them is to allow them to write our whole story.

Giving ourselves permission to walk with fear and let the shame fall to the ground allows us to walk into, stand in, and live from our brave and our worth.

This is the courageous life.