Ziggy the Cat

I had the luxury of spending the past two weeks up at O’Day Camp. O’Day Camp is a former migrant worker compound that we’re turning into a retreat for my workshops and intensive one on-one-power sessions.

Camp is beautiful in May -- the birds chirp, the flowers bloom and the river is usually non-threatening. We have all kinds of critters zooming around the yard -- chipmunks, bats, goldfinches, even an opossum or two.

Ziggy, our camp cat, loves to sit in the window and watch all the action. He sits up straight and makes all kinds of nutty sounds. He chatters and shakes and cries – like he’s just dying to get outside and kill something. Like he has to get outside really, really bad. Like if he doesn’t get out there he’ll go crazy! So I take him outside. And what does he do? Chase birds? Hunt mice?

No.

He panics. Sometimes he frantically rushes from one green patch of grass to another, chomping like he’s a grazing goat. Then he starts getting spooked by everything, the chirp of a bird or a car door slamming two miles away -- he has a total freak out and runs to the porch and cries to be let back inside. Once back in the house, he cries and yearns to be back outside with the birds.

I think Ziggy likes wanting the birds more than being in a position where he can actually catch them. I think a lot of people are like that, too. They’d rather cry over dreams that didn’t come true rather than hunt them down and tear them to into something new. Those are frightened, lazy people. You might even be one of them.

But you don’t have to be.

I challenge you to move forward through lazy fear into active fear. I challenge you to apply a little determination and a lot of imagination to what your life can become. I believe, through reading my blog and buying my books and signing up for O’Day Camp workshops you could break through your lazy fear to a whole new level of active fear. And, between you and me, active fear is a more fascinating more enjoyable level of fear.

I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you .