There's a story I read years ago about a man who fell down a well. Somehow he managed to grab hold of a rope on his way down. While he held onto the rope for his life, no doubt trying to climb up it and also calling for help, he got very tired. Eventually he let go, and he fell. Three inches.
Sometimes though, we fall a lot farther than three inches. We don't collapse gently into rock bottom, we crash into it. And when we recover, which we always do in some way, how do we get out?
I've had my share of falls and face plants--literally and figuratively. As painful as they can be, they give us depth and a perspective not many other people have the privilege of having.
I say privilege because when you can feel that hopeless to where you can let go completely, you don't just let go of hope; you let go of everything that got in the way of your true reason for being.
You can no longer afford to be normal. It's not even possible! And that's a great place to be because normal is not what rocks the world. Normal does not create revolutions. Normal does not innovate. Normal is not excellent. Normal is a lie.
Normal isn't about not looking or acting weird, it's a state of mind. What is the prize? Where are our eyes and our hearts fixed? On being better than or as good as? Is that it?
At rock bottom you don't care about that stuff. You don't care that you're afraid, that you're shaking in your boots and stuttering over your words as you get back up. You just move forward and as you experience you transform.
As you realize that not looking impeccable or meeting some silly standards of perfection is not that bad, you release the fear that kept you from trying in the first place.
You've seen the underbelly of fear and it's weak. You're not shaking; fear is! Fear is shaking at the realization that you have just been connected with your power and it's about to go bye-bye.
Rock bottom is where we find our power. You don't have to fall to find it. You don't have to take a cat nap on rock bottom to realize that nothing matters--nothing--except your ability to take one more breath. And then another and then another.
But for some of us, that's what it takes to help us get our wings. And if you're one of those people that is strong enough to survive that fall, take heart. Your power is waiting for you.
Journal Entry, September 09, 2014