"The boy didn't know what a person's "Personal Legend" was.
"It is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their personal legend is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force convinces them that it will be impossible for them to realize their Personal Legend."
--Paolo Coelho
What do you dream?
And, what would you like to see happen to you in your lifetime?
My own personal legend has always been deeply rooted in my soul. Like a comfortable refrain, it has been humming in my ear ever since I was a little girl. I know its cadence well. I hum its tune often. It is mine - authentically, honestly and without reserve. I was brought here to fulfill it - something - of that there has never been any doubt. Though, as physically courageous and strong as I have always been, I have also been deathly afraid - of rejection and vulnerability, namely. As a result, I have played the hermit. I have kept my love and my gifts hidden and stashed away, secretly revealing them only to a select few or only in certain, given moments. For far too long now, I have been pretending.
For most of my adult life, fear kept me trapped like a caged lion in the traveling circus. Prowling back and forth, forth and back, I miserably accepted my fate. I simply kept butting my mane up against the same door, expecting a different outcome. I resigned myself to the fact that life and love weren't perfect and that this was it - a long-term relationship that did not fuel my fire and miserably awaking to a day-to-day of dis-passion, of work that paid the bills and activities that filled the time. The deep longing to fulfill my destiny went unheeded. I suffered, and by not honoring my truest Self I brought suffering upon others as well.
Last summer, however, I finally realized that my remaining tight in a bud was much more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Last summer, I committed myself to my personal legend. Finally, the time had come to honor the visions I have always dreamed by taking small, yet active steps towards their manifesting. Finally, the time had come for my unfolding. More than anything, I recognized that - regardless of what the future was to bring - I'd rather attempt to revel in the life and love that I have always known is mine to manifest, then not try at all. The time had come, and it was n-o-w.
What was the impetus and that push-button start, you ask? Perhaps, it was the hard, ass-kicking that a mentor had refused to back down from even after working with my slow-self for three and a half years. Perhaps, it was the completion of a major goal, such as earning my MFA. Perhaps, it was simply the call of time and the magical number of 33. They say Jesus was thirty-three.
Who knows.
Who knows.
