Don't Die on the Shore

"The only real question is not one of winning or losing, but of experiencing life with an ever-increasing depth.

The storyteller says, 'Why not go down, at home or at work, into the lake, consciously, like Beowulf?' Don't die on the shore. The stakes are very high; the stakes are your life." – David Whyte, "The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America."

Don't die on the shore.

This is all I ask of you.

If our lives exist in a state which is either the safety of the shore of Not Knowing or the terrifying depths of the Lake of Self-Discovery, we all have periods when we feel we are dying on the shore.

We all have stretches of time when it seems we are not living our fullest life, when we are hiding from the true battles, when we are not diving down into the depths to find and battle the monsters we know are there. Periods when we are certain we are not free and pretty sure that we will never know freedom of the soul again.

Sitting on the Netflix Couch of Decay

And what the hell are we doing about it? Nothing. Freaking nothing. We're sitting on the damn couch of life, watching Netflix while our bodies decay and our brains get one step closer to beyond fucked.

God, that can hurt. I know. I've done it. I used to live with that kind of ache, that yawning darkness, that haunting lack, that moment just short of madness where you're still pissed enough to do something but you're also so damn tired. (Who ever told us that life would be so exhausting?)

But I'm here to tell you that nothing is finished. Not even now.

There's a way into that lake of real experience and hard, uncomfortable truths, if you want it. But you're going to need guts and sustained effort, because that lake is no place for cowards.

That lake holds all your fears. That lake is a mofo.

Jump Into That Damn Lake

Step forward anyhow. Do what you can now today this moment for your freedom and your soul before you watch one more freaking Netflix Original.

Decide to be an original instead.

You're going to have to be tough, because the outcome is not going to be fantastic every day. You may not even make it fully into the lake.

• Some days, maybe you'll get a toe in or a foot or maybe even a whole leg.

• Some days, you'll dive in fully and feel the cool water flow around you.

• Some days, you'll jump in and dive down, searching for the monster because you want to mess that bad boy up.

But, whatever happens, know at the very least this: the monster is in the lake and so are you, Skippy.

Better to fight and die in the water than live a shallow life one more day.

Screw that sandy beach.

Don't die on the shore.

Live.