What is your weapon of choice? Sarcasm, bitterness, coldness…maybe even anger? Sometimes it feels like you against the world, right? Oh I know….I wage my own battles.
My favorite shield and swords are stubbornness, detachment and narrow-mindedness. Yes these weapons keep my feelings, heart and my soul safe.
Hiding in foxholes is part of my warfare, arms at the ready waiting to lunge at my adversary. I stand guard to protect myself.
Are you a fearless warrior?
Fearless front-linesmen we can be, fighting for the safety of our hearts, the invisible war of words and feelings between foes and ourselves.
And as we pick and choose our battles, in the end we may have escaped fresh wounds of the heart and soul but we are callused with the scars from cuts and abrasions of past skirmishes.
We wear our scars like badges of courage.
We retreat back to our castles, the doors swing down allowing us to cross over the moat we have built to keep others out.
The cold stone walls run high….too high for the marauded invaders to scale.
Here we are safe. Here we can be at peace. But within our walls do we have comfort? Do we have warmth?
I ask myself if my castle walls have really turned into prison walls.
Am I now my own prisoner of war?
I am disconnected and isolated.
This world war is over.
And the bigger question now is do I have the courage to take the walls down?
Do I have the courage to drop my weapons of the crusade and walk out in peace?
Like the strength that kept me going in the heat of battle, can I find that strength to reach out and connect with the world around me?
Can I drop decorations of a brave soldier and strip off my chain mail suit and see myself naked in my authenticity, see my genuine needs and honor the needs and feelings now that there are no more dragons to slay?
I don’t know, but I will try. For if not, I remain behind the walls I have built.
I ask you to look the conflicts you have.
Can you lay down your weapons, walk out from behind the walls around you to step out and stand in your own truth?
