isn’t about giving up chocolate.

I picked up a copy of a booklet called Daybreaks from my church after mass 2 weeks ago. It is a booklet of daily reflections for Lent and Easter. One passage this week truly moved and inspired me, and I wanted to share it. Regardless of your religion or lack thereof, I hope you will enjoy reading this as I think it is something that many people (especially women) can relate to. You certainly don’t have to be religious to be spiritual and it is good to be reminded of the power of our spirit once in a while.

From Daybreaks:

I’d invited a group of women to experience a beautiful spot on the far side of a bluff in the high desert of the southwest. I promised to guide them one by one along a well-marked trail, although the last half-mile required leaving the trail to follow me through thick brush. I agreed to return at a set time to lead them back safely.

Some women were afraid of the height of the bluff, others feared the wildlife or being alone outside for several hours. The challenge demanded that they trust me, the terrain, and themsevles.

As I left the marked trail with the first woman, her pace slowed. When I could no longer heard her footsteps I looked back. She was standing beside a tree tearing pieces of tissue into small pieces, then laying them carefully on the branches. I remembered the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. The tissue was her bread trail. Her way back home, in case I didn’t come.

I was witnessing the nature of fear. Gripped by fear I’ve sometimes stayed in dim rooms and dark corners when the power of a bluff awaited me. Because of fear I’ve clung to traditions that bound me, and have fallen into a web of repetitious patterns that brought me no joy. I never saw, as I wandered in those dark and lonely spaces, that freedom was one step away, or that the Sprit within could lead me to larger places.

Under the grip of fear, we are unaware of the Spirit within.

COMMENTS(0)

Add to del.icio.us!