fearless....

this post is written for one person in particular....hopefully you know who you are...


My new favorite word...fearless.  It became my new favorite word after reading a quote by one of my favorite authors of all time, Neale Donald Walsch. For those of you who aren't familiar with him, he's the author of book series, 'Conversations with God'. Yes, that's right...con-ver-sa-tions with God. His life has had nearly every possible high and low yet he still stuck his neck out to write a book about a conversation he had with God. Not a one-sided "Neale talked and received answers in the form of signs" kinda conversation. No, we're talking about Neale talking and God answering...outloud...in a voice...that could be heard....words flowing back and forth between him and the cosmos...for real.


Now I'm not expecting most of you to read his book or even to understand his message. You don't have to believe he had a conversation with God. Whether he did or didn't isn't relevant at this point. The point is he fearlessly went to one publisher after another proclaiming to have had a conversation with God and wanting to put it in book form. I would imagine he had a few doors slammed in his face. I'm sure more than one person thought he was nuts. In fact, at the beginning of his book, he tells about several conversations he had with himself, convinced that he was going nuts or may be possibly having a stroke or something. To say...outloud...that he's had not one, but many conversations with God over the course of many months, seemed outrageous...crazy...stupid. Yet he fearlessly proclaimed his truth to the world and he fearlessly marched on until he found a publisher that was willing to take a chance on him. He became a published author and then he did something even harder...he began promoting his book on the radio and talk show circuit. Now he had to face people, look them in the eye, see their confusion and disbelief. He had to explain the unexplainable, sell the impossible, convert the masses. He had to walk and talk his truth.


Of course the story has a happy ending for Neale. He became a New York Times Best Selling Author, world famous and I'm sure quite wealthy. His story became easier to tell because his books and status made it mainstream. And rags-to-riches stories with happy endings always tug at our heartstrings, don't they? We can't help but be inspired. Yet maybe the story shouldn't be about how the little guy refused to give up and finally makes good. Maybe the true story is about how the little guy was willing to try. We live our lives every day in a form of fear called complacency...called our comfort zone..called a rut. We spend half our days in jobs we hate, we stay in relationships for all the wrong reasons, we don't change doctors or lawyers or hairdressers because we don't want the hassle. We eat the same food, vacation in the same spots, worship at the same church, leave our kids in the same schools, wear the same style clothes.... We rarely step outside of our normal routine even though we long for something different....something better....something more. We fear change, we fear the unknown...we fear living. We fear trying. We fear failing. We fear explaining. We fear what others will think. We fear life. We fear...we fear....we fear....


The quote I mentioned at the top of this post...the one by Neale Donald Walsch.  "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." Think about those words for longer than a split second. Ruminate on the meaning....Step to the edge of your comfort zone and look out into the abyss beyond...for just a moment, imagine what lies out there...waiting for you.