“The Most Courageous Act”

This is what my life has become.

I have questioned whether I need to keep pursuing or doing something to “keep expanding”. The message has been clear, “

Be still and know, I Am”

I am grateful for the stillness and quiet.

“The Most Courageous Act”

By Etheric Echoes

Sometimes the most courageous act is simply remaining, rooted in your own light. There is a grace in standing still when the world blurs around you. When others rush past like shadows chasing time, your heart beats steady – a quiet rebellion against the chaos they call living.

They may mistake your stillness for weakness, your silence for surrender. But you know better. You’ve learned that peace requires more courage than noise ever could, that staying soft in a hard world is its own kind of warrior’s path. You’ve found the strength to stand in your own truth, to hold space for your soul when the universe spins desperate circles around you.

For in this sacred pause, this gentle defiance of a world drunk on motion, you’ve discovered what they’re all running to find – that sometimes the bravest thing we can do is simply remain, rooted in our own light, unwavering in our own grace.

“Wonderache”

“I had been carrying hope in my pocket like it was polished gemstone for years

Whenever trouble came I’d squeeze hope tightly in my shaking hand and I could feel it bump against my palm

like a newborn heartbeat

That’s how I knew that I was safe

Recently though, I somehow lost my hope

I have no idea if I put it down somewhere or if it slipped out while I was fumbling for my keys

without being able to hold onto hope

I soon became lost myself

After a while of wandering in the wild on my own I bumped into hope ~ who looked so different

Hope was no longer a little gemstone that could fit in my pants pocket

Hope was a now a wide stream cutting through the woods

“I thought I lost you!” I admonished

The river grabbed a couple of rainbow trout and used them to smile at me

“lost me?” The water babbled. “That’s impossible!”

“Well, one minute I was holding onto you and the next you were gone.”

“I needed to change forms,” Hope replied.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you’ve been carrying me for so long that I decided we should try something different.”

“What’s that?”

“I thought I would take a turn carrying you for a bit.”

The river rose up around me and pulled me gently onto my back

I was floating

I didn’t realize how exhausted I was until the river held me

and hope carried me

and hope carried me

and hope carried me

~now whenever trouble comes

I just spread my arms open and let hope wrap me up in her slow water and I can still feel it

pulse against me like a newborn heartbeat

that’s how I know that I’m safe

I don’t know where we are going

Hope and I still appear to be lost but at least we are together

Maybe we will stay lost out here for a while longer

Funny enough, I’m in no rush to get to our destination because it has been so long since I’ve felt held by anything

and I think I could really get used to it “

~ by John Roedel In upcoming book “wonderache”

(art by the fabulous Akira Kusaka Illustration)