A very wise man once told me that we can never achieve great things if we are afraid of adventure. We will always know if we are afraid of adventure if we discover that we are afraid to lose sight of the shore. It is only in going out into the ocean of possibilities that we can make new discoveries.
He told me this at a time when I was needing to make a drastic change in my life. Everything that I was, everything that I knew myself to be, was in flux. I was not sure of what needed to change, but I knew that SOMETHING had to in order for my life to take a turn.
But I was also worried about what was around the bend for me. It could be something amazing or it could be something disastrous. I had dealt with enough disaster in my life by that time and was not really liking the possibility that this could lead to yet another. So I was just sitting there, in my life, waiting for a sign. The wise man told me this and, while I sat there, waiting for a sign, I contemplated what he said. I was at a point where I was seriously considering that his message, in and of itself, may just be the sign for which I had been waiting. Then BAM! The sign appeared. It became painfully (and I do mean PAINFULLY) obvious that I could stay where I was no longer. I had to make a bold move and get myself out of a really horrible circumstance.
Many of us have heard the phrase that “The Universe does not ever give us more than we can handle”. This was a moment when I was very tempted to tell the Universe to just chuck off. I was already down and was, yet again, being kicked in the teeth while down. But I decided in that moment that enough was enough. I was not going to be kicked anymore. I found the courage within myself, and I found the strength within myself to take that foot that had been kicking me and rip it right off the one doing the kicking.
After that, I left. I moved away from where I had been living, and although I had a vague idea of where I needed to be I really had no idea what it would end up looking like in the long run. And then a very wise woman said to me, “We really cannot try to make the Universe’s plan for us look a certain way, or we risk tying the hands of the Universe altogether and not allowing it to bring us to where we need to be.” So there I was. I had completely lost sight of the shore and was floating adrift. I decided that I had to take some matters into my own hands, so I started to row. I had no idea where I would end up, but I kept rowing until I found something that felt like it fit.
And here I am.