Hello world!

Hello world!

This is the first entry of my new blog, “My Name Is Courage”.

I was going to delete the default “Hello, world!” post, until I realized that it was exactly what I wanted to say:

I want to say hello, world.

I want to say hello to joy, hello to life, hello to hope, hello to risk, hello to love, hello to courage, hello to passion, hello to beauty, hello to creativity, hello to freedom, hello to everything good in me that I often sabotage in order to avoid pain and failure, but which stubbornly live on, just beneath the surface of hopelessness and resignation.

I want to say hello to sorrow, hello to grief, hello to tears, hello to pain, hello to stuffed emotions, hello to regret, hello to fear, hello to everything painful that I try to avoid and pretend does not exist, and yet have my life in a death-grip.

I want to say hello to myself, hello to the person I really am but have hardly met yet (much less embraced), hello to the one under all of the masks, hello to the one who doesn’t think he has anything to offer, hello to the artist, hello to the writer, hello to the storyteller, hello to the seer of the unseen and lover of the unloved, hello to the one whose strength is in his weakness.

I want to say hello to those who have known and loved the small part of me I let them see.  I want to say hello to those I have not met yet, whose stories of courage and perseverance and passion will inspire me to tell and embrace and create my own story.  I want to say hello to all those I will encounter on this scary, wonderful, healing adventure.

Hello, world!  My name is Courage.