Osho Card Reading of the Day: 'COURAGE'

"This card shows a small wildflower that has met the challenge of the rocks and stones in its path to emerge into the light of day. Surrounded by an aura of bright golden light, it exposes the majesty of its tiny self. Unashamed, it is equal to the brightest sun.

When we are faced with a very difficult situation we have a choice: we can either be resentful, and try to find somebody or something to blame for the hardships, or we can face the challenge and grow.

The flower shows us the way, as its passion for life leads it out of the darkness and into the light. There is no point fighting against the challenges of life, or trying to avoid or deny them. They are there, and if the seed is to become the flower we must go through them. Be courageous enough to grow into the flower you are meant to be."

I have always loved this image of the small, nubile plant sprouting out from the most inhospitable of places. Never before had I associated this image to the word 'courage', but now I see how it is so. I can relate to this challenge and path because I myself have emerged from a very dark place in my life, have broken through seemingly impenetrable layers only to emerge stronger and more expansive than before.

The thing about courage is that it is not just a one-time thing in this process of life. I have faced myself many times, sometimes I've fallen, and sometimes I've stood strong, and what I realized is that there is no way around facing the challenges of self; you either do it now or you do it later, but it must be done in order to continue to grow.

I've noticed that when I face big challenges in my life, once I walk through them and get to the other side, there is this seemingly monumental moment of success and achievement! And that is cool! I was courageous, I faced myself, and I am stronger for it! But the thing I've noticed is that one can get carried away in celebrating one's own success. The downfall to this is that it often leads to a fall of sorts. It would be like building a house where you have all the instructions and blueprints... you know how to do it but procrastinate for a long time due to the initial push it takes to really get started and break the ground. During all that procrastination there are reactions, stresses, anxieties because you know you just need to take the first step. And then, you do; you put the shovel in the ground and dig, and you plant your first foundational post. That is amazing! You started! You overcame all the resistances, you stepped up and you got started... that is definitely worth celebrating! A moment of releasing all those pent up reactions, a moment of enjoyment and self-appreciation is definitely due, but if you celebrate this small victory as if you have already built the whole house, what's going to happen is that you risk falling flat by celebrating the end when you've only just begun.

This is the same for life's challenges where one needs to find the courage within to overcome them. I had done this just recently, where I faced a few points in a row, and I got this rushing sense of relief and release, and almost went into a 'high'. Unfortunately, in reacting to my accomplishment in this way by going too much into the positivity of the moment, I robbed myself of a real moment of enjoyment I could have had with myself. Where it's like, you go into this positivity, and you loose track of where you are, where you've been and where your heading in terms of the work that still needs to be done. You kind of fall off track, creating more work for yourself in the focus and effort it will now take to create a new track for yourself that will lead you to continue facing points, opening up and courageously expanding.

Fortunately, if happened again recently: I faced a big point of limitation I had been living with my whole adult life. This time, however, I was all the wiser because I remembered what had happened last time. What I did this time was yes, I took a moment to enjoy that feeling of weightlessness, that blissful feeling of having a weight taken off of one's shoulders that I had been carrying around for so long. But I also this time grounded myself squarely in reality, where I took note of how I created this limitation for myself, and all of the consequences I experienced because of it. I looked and saw how easy it would be for me to re-created this limitation in my life by simply repeating the same patterned programmed behaviour. I made sure to take note of the 'red flag' behaviours so that I would spot them from now on, so as not to repeat them and thus re-create the exact same limitation for myself in my life.

Needless to say, although I mustered up the courage, dug deep and faced the point, the 'work' was not yet done. I had to fully integrate this change, which takes time, repetition, trial and error before the new, healthy and beneficial behaviour is fully integrated into my life and living.

So, to take this word forward with me, and re-define it as a word I can live from now on, I will use my second language of French to sound the word and see the hidden meaning within it.

The sound 'cour' from 'courage' in French means 'heart' (coeur). And then I am left with the sound 'age' which I will take to mean 'time passing'. 'Cour' in French also means 'run'. So when and as I need to live 'courage', I am reminded of my heart, that delicate nubile organ at the center of my being, the one which beats consistently regardless of the challenges faced both physically and emotionally.

In honour of my beating heart, I center myself and ground myself into my physical in moments of challenge and I muster up the courage to keep taking the next step. I continue as time passes, through the ages as I age, so that I age in a way where I create myself as something new, something that learns, grows and expands over time, instead of continuing on in the 'old way', where my life and living leads to more and more limitation and the creation of weight and burden. Within this, remember to remain grounded, to never lose track of the work that still needs to get done, the steps that still need to be taken. I celebrate my moments of courage, remembering to take a moment to appreciate myself, and then to continue on the road ahead knowing I am ready for the next challenge.

An obstacle overcome is not a victory to end all victories, but a moment of celebration and release in the path of life. More obstacles are sure to come, and I will be ready, knowing I have proven to myself that I have the courage to face everything life throws at me, knowing and trusting myself as life that I will never be faced with something more than I can handle.