“Pressure Makes Us” (from a Nike ad) "What We Do with Pressure Defines Us" (C. Wallace)

I watched yesterday as the women’s soccer teams from the U.S. and Japan vied for the World Cup. What a great game. Not one to watch sports on television often….really ever….I turned it on at my dad’s suggestion and then sat entranced as the women worked their magic. At the end of the match, as the players lined up for the penalty kicks that would decide the victor,  I was so much into the game that I felt a little fear in the pit of my stomach and in my breathing. After the match was over and the much deserved honors were being showered on the Japanese team, I wondered if fear was something that the players had felt too. Do they call it fear? Fear is an interesting thing….it can motivate us to glory, it can paralyze us, it can cause us to behave in ways not in the best interests of ourselves or our world.

Not too long ago I realized that fear is what has motivated me much of my life. I don’t think I’m so unusual either. From an early age I learned that it is not okay to be imperfect- even though that is exactly what we all are in the strictest sense of the word. So, motivated by fear…fear of failure, fear of hell, fear of losing love, fear of homelessness, fear of being labeled unsuccessful, fear of not being nice.…you get the idea…the list is LONNNNNG….I stumbled through life.

After I made this realization I decided that I did not want to be motivated by fear in such an unhealthy extreme. I would rather be motivated by my love for things and people and possibilities than my fear of their opposites. I would rather run towards life instead of away from it. I would rather stick it out in front of the goalie and try the kick that may be a success or off the mark, than refuse to participate at all.

Along the line, a soul friend sent me the poem, A Morning Offering, by the late Irish poet, John O’ Donohue. I recognized it as a gift from the Divine sent to help me focus on what I wish to live out in my life. The last stanza is especially important to me and I have memorized it and use it as a mantra.  May it be so today for us all.

“May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.”