Messages From Carrie

The Dare

December 7th, 2011

         

               
         
         
         
      
      
   

   
There is a voice

The one that speaks

With warm breath,

Close to our ear.

A voice that whispers in our most vulnerable moments

“You have simply not measured up.”

 “You could or should have gone further,

Burned brighter,

Been a whole lot less flawed.”

This voice does not take into account

The strength of your love

Or depth of your longing.

It does not acknowledge

That you have braved so much

All the large and small

Public and private

Intentional acts of love, kindness or vulnerability.

It does not give you credit

For following your heart

When it would have been so much easier

To have followed the safe or inconspicuous.

This voice comes in the dark times or quiet intervals.

It pushes back at the very moment

You are trying hardest to move forward.

And when that voice is at its most desperate

It will simply say, “How dare you.”

“How dare you

So human,

So flawed,

Who has made so many mistakes,

Claim the goodness of your heart,

Rest in the assurance of your best intentions?

How dare you try

Or claim,

Or ever rest?”

But, we brave this voice,

This voice so like a buffeting wind,

A battering of words that we saw coming

Like the shadow of a storm across a wide field.

We pass through the center of the whirlwind

Rake our fingers through our hair

And raise up our heads

Saying with appreciation and more than a little wonder,

“Yes, I have dared with courageous shaky knees.”

“Yes, I have hoped and tried and failed

 And hoped and tried again.”

“Yes, I have risk everything,

Opened and poured my heart

Into the unsure container of the world.”

“Yes, how I have dared

“Yes, how I have loved.”

Square back our shoulders

And dare again.