As a result of living my life ‘on the edge’, I have great respect for the teaching of the mountain goat.
They fearlessly walk the cliffs, finding just the right ‘foothold’ to allow it to take the next step.
They manage to dance with the wind, hide from the snow, and shelter from the rain. How do they do it?
This post is a journey about exploring how we, those of us who are the edge walkers, have managed to not just live, but to thrive in a world where living on the edge is just part of the nature of who we are.
Standing on an edge now, I gaze down and see the past waiting for me to take one wrong step and swallow me up.
Beliefs like, I can’t, I shouldn’t. ‘I couldn’t,’ are phrases among a few I have used over the years.
All of them holding me back, not allowing me to move forward out of fear for what the consequences might be.
However, perhaps those fears were unfounded, which leaves us not having experienced the stories that might have unfolded, had we had the courage to take the next step.
So where is safe ground? Which is the right path?
How many times have we walked in the footsteps of others, only to find that the path has not lead us to where we had expected?
How many times have we followed someone we thought shared in our ideas and principles, only to find it challenging and fraught angst? The lesson is we have to find our own path.
If we are open to listening to our helping spirits, or intuition, we might hear the teaching.
If we are open to looking, we might actually see the potential that might assist us, and in ways that we could never have imagined.
For me shamanism is that path, and it keeps leading me further and further towards a deeper understanding of who I am, and the gifts that I bring to the world.
The journey is just beginning, and in wonder it can lead us to other beginnings.
For this I am truly grateful and often humbled, by the teachings that mountain goat continues to share with me.
“Walk on the edge,” she says, “And be prepared to be amazed.”
