Courage and curiousity

 

Courage and curiosity

This picture depicts well the deep connection between courage, curiosity, intention, attention to the immediate moment, and fearlessness. Curiosity guided me, from childhood, throughout my life. When I started exploring the topic, I had to admit that curiosity was my best friend,

My trust in people and the wish to know more, live fully be engaged in what was around me and even more so with what seemed to be fun and adventurous started when I was four years old. Not knowing enough to be afraid, I befriended what I learned later was the enemy. To innocent unafraid me, they seemed interesting friends. The feeling I had when being curious was one of thrill, inner support, happiness, and friendliness.

Curiosity to me is and was engagement, full engagement; daring to connect with people, our inner web of musings, dreams, adventures. Sometimes against a solid wall of fear and reluctance still being motivated to break the spell and move through it. I found myself being willing to do the undoable, break taboos with the wish to overcome my (or other people’s) opinions to see what is real.  It was about a hunger to be included, see into the unknown, understand, and overcome uncertainty through trust. In a way it was also trusting the unknown to be not only known, but also rewarding, rich and strengthening my ground, growing expansive wings of freedom. Curiosity supported me to delve deeper into the essence of the moment. And get out of doubt, fear, despair, or ignorance.

I believe Curiosity is actually a tool to get out of fear and despair. It certainly served that for me. As you probably read in my Memoir. I know some call it recklessness, others (me included) call it the joy of living fully, giving myself totally into the experience, and maybe that means living dangerously sometimes. All in the name of getting to the bottom line of the truth, that life presents us with, which is hidden in the shadow of conventions or social agreements we have gotten used to and don’t often question.

Sometimes curiosity was a way I found useful to get out of boredom or habitual way of living that no longer made any sense, because the aliveness in it was sapped dry.

I told myself that life is changing all the time and staying in structures that are stifling invite the courage to initiate daring change, to explore what is outside the cage, whether a marriage, an attitude to a person, or a lifestyle. I explored many varied opportunities I stepped into with trust and allowed my curiosity to roam toward the new possibility, expansion, or disaster. Feeling fully alive, shaking in fear at times in the process.

 There is another element of curiosity that was a part of the soup of curiosity though, as the Latin language tells us the word curiosity is cor which translates to heart.  When stepping out on a limb, I found that I had to recruit an open heart. Surviving the danger often came from the heart, Because as I found, at the end of the road the power of love overcomes the love of power. I wonder what you’ll think when you read my memoir, From Mud to Lotus, I meant to behave but there were too many other options. Please let me kno