In Thanks.

How to be feared.

To have spent a life - or a third of one - surrounded by people who wanted to see you be your smallest self is a punishment which none should ever have to endure endure. Certainly not you.

But you did.

And now you help people.

Not for recognition, or clout, or anything else. You do it because you have been there. You have been a warrior when you wished only to be a doctor. You have been a savior when you needed saving.

You have been the one with bold dreams and a big heart - giving until there is nothing left to give, and still giving more from your empty well.

Whoever took those dreams from you, know that they are not dead. A dream cannot die. They only enter stasis - to be passed along, transformed and changed by those who follow the trail you are forging.

Many will fear this when they see it in you.

They will fear the lion and the lamb alike. They will fear the lamb for refusing to die, despite death. For refusing to succumb, even in the face of that thing to which we must all one day yield - and for the bravery in which that refusal seats itself in pride.

They will fear the lion for its great teeth and mighty appetite.

This fear does not make the lion less noble, nor the lamb less brave.

How to be brave.

Have you ever had to wear the mask of the lion in order to shepherd your sheep?

Then you know what it means to be the lamb.

Envision the lamb - your best-meaning self - wandering around, grazing in a field. Each step our lamb takes is done with the shaky-legged trepidation of a newborn. Since a lamb is a little like a kid, can you envision our cautious lamb losing track of its position within the field - focused on the great, green dangers which lie underhoof?

By the time the lamb has finished grazing on and investigating the complex intentions of grass, it may find itself on the edge - at the border between a grassy knoll and something else.

How to grow proud.

The lamb, finally reaching the end of the grass, decides to raise its head. Looking around, it sees no more of that treacherous grass which dared to tickle its hooves.

At first, a lion may be offended that some small thing has strolled right up, so bold - and so stupid. It looks like a nice snack.

How dare that thing step foot in my home? I am a lion! I am mighty! All things fear -

- BAAAAA!

*Roa-

- BAAAAA!

A lion does not tolerate interruptions - certainly not of this sort.

Still, something about this situation prompts curiosity in the lion. Meals do not typically walk up to lions. Generally, there is some chase - we've all seen nature documentaries.

How not to be afraid.

You know how this goes.

The lion eats the lamb, we all get a little sad. Life goe-

- BAAAAA!

Why is that lamb still there? Why is it doing that at me? Doesn't it see the lion standing right behind it?

Nevermind. Now I'm curious. And I'm not lion. This lamb does not give up. I wonder if it has seen a nature documentary.

What is it doing now? It seems to be walking toward the lion - it must have mistaken the mane for its mother's wool. Maybe.

How to use teeth.

Envision the lamb, back turned to the great lion behind, both gazing directly at you - lamb "baaa"-ing right at you. The lion? He is dead silent.

Lurking.

Baring his teeth - at you.

Prideful leaders have earned their status, no doubt, but not for their might and their violence. Rather, lions will have had to fight, and scrap and scratch and claw - as a species - from the bottom to the top, since the dawn of time.

We have all seen a nature documentary.

Any leader - or indeed, any being - who has climbed from the bottom to the top is inclined to recognize the same spirit within another being.

This lamb has no desire to climb - it is a sheep, not a goat. Still, the spirit of the king sings within - literally or mythically. This lamb could have turned and run. Instead, through the naivety of youth, it has done the bravest thing many could imagine - turned its back to a lion. Whether it did so on faith - or on the whims of a kid - hardly matters. What does matter is that you are now facing down a lion who is baring his teeth. Again, not at the lamb, but at you.

How to be you.

Being you sounds difficult.

You keep giving and giving and giving, and you receive little in return except a lion's snarling.

But that's why you do it. How many have survived the lion's jaws - its paws? How many have seen a lamb wander up to a lion in the first place?

You continue to be you by seeing the awe even in the insurmountable. You may be toe to toe with a deadly lion and a lamb with a death wish, but your spirit is made of stardust, and your body contains the same materials which compose granite.

Keep being solid, and the world will build itself around you. Lions do not fear rocks, and nor do lambs confound them.

You are built of bedrock.