The Mad Minstrel

Have you ever watched a group of kids climbing a tree? They live without fear and follow their hearts. If they fall – they dust it off and keep going, if they fall again – they get up again, if they need help – they ask… because no one wants to be the only kid left on the ground.

Life is a complicated mess of emotions and if you’ve made it this far you’ve probably been burned, you’ve hurt someone, and you’re carrying around enough baggage to fill a cargo hold. It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything, most of us are like this. Knowing this, it’s no wonder that when presented with something special – a new friend, a dream job, a girl who likes you for who you are- you’re a little apprehensive.

Risks don’t seem risky when we’re children because we haven’t survived enough of the consequences to understand what it means to be hurt and disappointed over and over again. So as adults, choosing the safe option seems reasonable… even if it means sacrificing a piece of ourselves.

I hate this.

If you keep denying what you want, if you keep holding yourself back, and if you’re too afraid to open up to new people, you will never be the person you are inside. You’ll end up a shell of what you were supposed to be and, at the end, you’ll wonder about everything that could have been.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying everyone should blindly follow every impulse they have, that would be chaos! I’m saying that if you keep yourself closed off because you’re afraid, you’ll never find the joy you deserve, and you deserve it.

So take my hand and don’t be the only kid left on the ground.

Image by Yatheesh Gowda from Pixabay