Rediscovering Courage - in Life, in Love and in Myself

A few days ago I received an email from a very dear friend. A friend who has been battling for some time now on issues of courage, self belief and self worth. She and I have been through much together with our marriages, our divorces and our children. She is right there in the centre of my inner circle. My heart has ached for her this past year. I have always had faith that she would find her way out of this bleak, dark tunnel.

Her email inspired me to write, (a passage of which is written below with her permission) it inspired me to jump up and exclaim YES, YES, YES! It’s the last sentence that caused my elation. Read it and I’ll explain.

“Having a little moment of revelation – Have been thinking how my world is shrinking just recently, you know I barely left the county this year, just yesterday my car went for its MOT and my stepdad had them check my mileage twice as neither he nor the mechanic could believe it I had only done 5,000 miles since my last MOT, less than half what I would normally do. Then today I picked up Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way – what did I find? A quote by Anais Nin ‘Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage’.

So, this New Year one of my resolutions has to be to rediscover my courage – in life, in love and in myself – maybe then I can sort my finances, get another job and find my soulmate or at least sort myself out a bit. So there is hope ….”

You see it’s the word HOPE that jumped out at me. There is always HOPE. Hope is what prevents a bad day turning into a bad week. Hope is what encourages us to keep going. Hope is what comforts us when things are tough.

‘A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love’ – Stendhal

How many of us by the time we’ve got to midlife find that our life has shrunk a little?…..or a lot?

How does the quote by Anais Nin resonate with you? Does it describe your life?

What plans do you have for expanding your life this coming year?