Inspirational Short Story, Female Fantasy Art, Relaxing Music

I'll walk where my own nature would be leading

-- It vexes me to choose another guide. . .

-- Emily Bronte

We journey across many intersections in our lives. Some may point in two directions,

while others lead off in several.

Our choice of direction can be difficult, especially when our friends choose a road we know to be dangerous.

When this happens, we can choose to go our own way without them.

If they begin to tease and taunt us about our decisions, may we remember that they are as scared as we were about their friends' reaction.

We are not, after all, living for someone else.

If we would be leaders, we can be assured that true leadership comes from following our own directions with confidence that it's right for us, not from fear of losing others' company.

We can let others live their own lives without us, if their direction is not for us.

We can walk away with pride, satisfied in the knowledge that we refused to allow other people's fears to change our decisions.

One must be leery of words because they turn into cages.

-- Viola Spolin

We defeat ourselves with labels. We hem ourselves in; we shorten our vision; we cut off opportunities in the making.

We influence how others think of us, too.

Someone wise said that we teach others how to treat us. Are we teaching people to expect nothing great from us -- because we are always afraid?

Do we shatter their vision of our potential -- by never thinking we can handle what may come?

We become the persons we have programmed ourselves to be. We can revamp the program anytime.

And right now is a good time to begin. We are surrounded by persons who have done just that.

It's time for praise. We are all that we need to be and more. We will be helped to do all we are asked to do.

We have an inner beauty that only needs encouragement to shine forth.

If we smile from within today, we will free ourselves from our negative cages.

A new life awaits us.

I have come to realize that all my trouble with living

has come from fear and smallness within me.

-- Angela L. Wozniak

We create problems for ourselves because we think we need to be more than we are. We fear that we are inadequate to the task before us,

fear that another woman is more attractive, fear that friends around us are bored by our presence.

Fear hinders us; it prevents full involvement with the experiences we are given to grow on.

When we withdraw from a situation in order to save ourselves from failure, we have chosen instead another kind of failure: failure to take all we can from life, failure to be all that we can be.

Every experience can move us forward in the understanding of ourselves. When we withdraw, we stay stuck in a world we need to leave behind.

__________

I will not fear whatever looks like trouble today.

Nothing I can't handle -- in fact, nothing I can't grow from --

will come my way today. My inner strength can see me through.

__________

01/18/2014

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