Finding our Heart’s Hero

A few days ago, I blogged a bit about the Answering the Call retreat that I went to.  Sharon Knight blogged about her take on the retreat today.   A large part of the retreat was to become your own hero .. in whatever form that is.  This world is changing too quickly, and in too chaotic a fashion, for us to wait for the “person in charge” to do something.  We each must rise up and be our own hero.

Sharon talks about there being three main things to do to become your own hero: “Courage, Awareness, Intention.”  Sharon has her own definition of what those three things are, and I’d like to share mine with you.

Courage is the ability to face your fears.  To know what you fear, to understand it, and to face it.  Sometimes just getting out of bed takes courage, sometimes it’s getting out the door, or driving to work or school, sometimes it’s leaving a job that’s toxic without having somewhere to go.   Sometimes simply recognizing our fear can help us to face it, sometimes it takes a lot more than that.  With courage to face our fears, we can change them, we can make them no longer fears, or we can learn to live with them.

Awareness is recognition, understanding, seeing what is going on within and without. T. Thorn Coyle often recommends taking the time to recognize your feelings, your actions.  Not to judge, or to condemn, not to fix or address, but to simply be aware of our actions and reactions.  And to understand that while those are our actions or reactions, we are not trapped in them.  We can choose to change them, or not, as we will.

Intention is the action.  We have faced our fears and been aware of our reactions, now we choose to act.  Each of us can choose how we wish to act, and by being aware of ourselves and understanding our fear, we can act in a way most suited to our nature.  Perhaps you are an activist, or perhaps you work better in a support role, or in a leadership role, or as a recorder of acts.  Whatever your choice of role, you can choose to be in that role fully.  You can choose to rise up and be your own hero.

So face your fears, be aware of yourself, and find that hero within.

I’ll leave you now with the words of a chant first taught to me by T. Thorn Coyle at Pantheacon 2011:

Kings arise to the battle!
Queens arise to the battle!
We rise up! With the power of the spear.
Rise up! With the strength of the sword.
Rise up! With the courage in our hearts.
Rise up! Rise!

We are all Kings and Queens. It’s our time to rise!