Lion or Lamb?

[qos]

The SparkPeople "Healthy Reflections" email once again provides great inspiration:


It is better to live one day as a lion than one thousand days as a lamb.

How will your life be remembered? Will your story be lost among the millions who were afraid to take a chance? Or will you leave something noble behind? There's nothing to gain by following the crowd or doing what you've always done. You may as well put yourself out to pasture. But there's everything to gain by believing that you're king or queen of the jungle, even if just for a day. (Go ahead and roar if you want to.) Each of us has an amazing opportunity to live large if we allow it. It takes leaving the comfort of our familiar meadows and walking into the unknown. Once you take that chance, you've made your days worthwhile. Even if you have few resources, adventure is around every corner, and life is waiting to be devoured. If you were to write the book of your life, would you want to read it?

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Definitely a quote that I do not remotely agree with. OTOH, my own self-definition includes clever, sneaky, and exceedingly risk-averse.

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

I was told a few months back in an oracle by Dionysus that I am a lioness dressed as a lamb. I wish I really knew what to do about it.

[qos.livejournal.com]

When I was a senior in college, my most demanding professor was directing Shakespeare and I was stage managing for him. He always wrote a quotation on the blackboard before class or rehearsal, and this time he'd written one from Alice in Wonderland about the Queen of Hearts bellowing for order in the courtoom and getting everyone settled down in their correct place. Under it, he wrote "For FJ."

I thanked him for it, and somehow the conversation resulted in him saying, "There are two kinds of people: diplomats and queens."

"I'm a diplomat," I said.

He shook his head. "Oh, no. You're a queen. You just don't have your full confidence yet."

I was twenty-two at the time. It took me almost another twenty years to grow into my queenhood. As it turned out, it wasn't a process that came entirely from within. It helped to have others around who started to honestly see me and respond to me as if I were a queen. Their energy was a catalyst.

I suspect that you will grow into your lioness-ness, perhaps with the help of others who see and believe in her before you do.

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

Aw. That's a fantastic story.