Beauty and the beast in love.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life, I was a bride married to amazement. Mary Oliver

My lovely blog friend Diane at Contemplative Photography writes about suddenly realizing, amidst the cacophony of sound she's heard from the birds on the edge of the water where she's lived for the past nine years, there's a birdsong she's never noticed before. "What else am I missing?" she asks.

In my journal the other day I wrote, "I ignore my knowing in order to stay unaware, to avoid my own power."

There is in life so very much we do not see, we do not hear, we do not recognize amidst the hustle and bustle of life passing by and under and over us every day. So much we push back, tuck away, sweep under the covers of living every day on the edge of becoming aware -- of who we are, what we are, where we are, how we are living this one wild and passionate life in the rapture of now -- or in the presence of the past shadowing our every step.

And then, one day we wake up and see, this one wild and passionate life is all we have. This life is all we need to be aware of, awake to, alive in. And in that moment of grace we have a choice, to open our eyes and heart and arms, to rip open our very being to the wonder and beauty of life within us, or to sink back beneath the covers, pull the shades and fall back asleep to dream of life in another time when we are perfect, acceptable, enough.

In Diane's post, Fending off the Dark, she quotes David Whyte from his book, The Heart Aroused. "We come to accept that every one of us can fail, fail to live the life we desire for ourselves, or even fail to uncover the desire itself..."

Everyone one of us can fail to live the life we desire.

Yesterday I had lunch with a delightful friend who told me about her passion for working with children. In her commitment to making a difference in their lives, she has made a commitment to raise $1 million to donate to charities.

"For the first time in my life," she told me, "I sat down and got serious about what it was I want to do and how I intend on doing it."

In that process of finding clarity, people have begun to align themselves with her passion. They've started to come towards her, without her ever even having to ask.

The failure, she said, would be to not embrace their support. To not accept their help. To not do whatever she can to make her dream come true.

And in the fruition of her dream is the difference she will make to children with debilitating diseases, with disadvantages, with life circumstances few of us can imagine.

Last night, in talking to my eldest daughter about a course she's taking this week on Forum Theatre, she said, "I know what I want to do mom. What I must do. I know theatre is where I must be in order to make a difference in this world."

She has the 'what'. She's doing the things she needs to do to build her foundation, to establish herself in her field. Now, all she needs is to stay focused on the what and allow the 'how' to unfold without her resistance or giving into that tiny voice of self-doubt whispering in her ear, 'it can't be true'.

It is true. She has a passion. A commitment. A desire. A dream. At times, she will fall, she will step back from the threshold of her dream and pause, perhaps even as so many of us do, she may think of walking away from what she believes in, what she wants, what she sees as her purpose in this world.

I pray she doesn't. I pray she holds her courage above her like a light illuminating the path to her dreams come true. I pray she stays strong, stays committed to always speaking her truth -- for in her unique voice there is a song so beautiful, so precious, so vital. Hers is a voice that must be heard.

So is yours. So is mine. So is everyone else's.

We all have a unique voice. We all have a song to sing. A story to tell. A dream to unfold.

If we never sing, no one will ever have a chance to hear us amidst the cacophony of sound rising from the edge of the wasteland of the past. Our voice will never drift up from the edges of tomorrow, forgotten in the dream of another day gone by passing over that place where we did not attempt to fail at what we've always dreamed of doing, of being, of realizing, of becoming.

We must sing or our voices will die like the sparrows of Tibet shot from the sky for fear their song would cause an uprising.

We must sing and tell our stories, live our dreams, commit ourselves to being our best. For in our song, we cannot fail -- even when we feel like we are falling down. We cannot fail. In our living these dreams, in stepping away from the fears and tribulations of yesterday, we come alive. In our letting go of what was once upon a time to embrace what is in this moment now, we come to know the depths to which we can swim and the heights to which we can fly. And no matter where we are, we become beauty in love with the beast alive in the pure joy of being our own magnificent selves.

We cannot fail when we are alive to who we are in this moment now fearlessly and faithfully loving ourselves for all we're worth.

For we are of great worth.

Great value.

We are greatness.

Ask yourself today, Who am I when I am not being run by my past?

And then, live the answer, fearlessly in love with all you are, beauty and the beast, in love.

Nameste.