Sometimes what we try to avoid comes to get us

Sometimes what we try to avoid comes to get us because it refuses to be avoided anymore. Refuses to be cast out in the cold anymore. Refuses to be overlooked by us anymore because it has been trying to reach us for a reason. Trying to come to us for a reason. Forcing us to have to make decisions about whatever it is we have been trying to avoid.

Telling us that nothing in life is an accident. Showing us that everything comes to us when we are ready even when we think we aren’t. Even when we feel we don’t know what to do, what we are trying to avoid comes to us, asking us to have the will and strength to do what we have to do. To embrace the unknown. To step out of our comfort zones. To challenge ourselves to do the thing we think we can’t.

Sometimes the things we are trying to avoid sneak up us on when we least expect. They come for us. Beckoning us to open our eyes to whatever it is we had closed them to. Asking us to see ourselves from a different light. To know that we are capable of so much more when we allow ourselves to break free of the chains of fear. Encouraging us to break free of staying stuck because we know stuck even though we know it is stuck that is keeping us stuck. Suppressing us. Keeping us barred and chained from the life we asked to come here to live.

When what we are trying to avoid shows up on our doorstep, it is up to us to invite it in. Because if we don’t, it will find its way in. Forcing us without our consent to confront the demons we have hidden because they refuse to be hidden anymore. Refuse to continue to take a backseat in our lives because we keep calling for them behind closed doors. So they push through and barge into our lives.

And then we have no choice but to come face to face with what we have been trying to avoid. With hearts racing, palms sweaty and bile rising in our chest, we have no choice but to confront what we have been trying to avoid because there is no avoidance anymore. No hiding anymore. No private meetings behind closed doors. Everything is out in the open. For everyone to see.

What do we do then? Breathe deeply and slowly and allow all of our inhibitions, vulnerabilities and fears to come to the forefront. Be honest with ourselves and then allow what it is we have been trying to avoid to be set free. Taking us along for the ride.

Allowing us to soar. To speak what we have feared the most. To trust that we have been delivered to this place because it is time to either shut the door on it or to fling the door wide open and do what we think we cannot do. Learning there is nothing in life we can avoid when it is time. When it is meant for us to do. When it is meant to be. When we have been asking for it but saying it is not what we want. Learning as Jaclyn Atkinson says, “we must build a ship before we burn a bridge” in order to be the person we came here to be. In order to live the lives we want and need. In order to be set free from the burdens we have carried because we tried to ignore the fact that we were carrying them.
Sometimes the thing we tried to ignore comes to get us. Refusing to be avoided anymore.  And when it does it is a blessing for us even we are the most afraid because it is giving us the courage to break free of the prison we have imposed upon ourselves. To rid ourselves of the demons keeping us stuck. Allowing us to see and know what we are capable of- truly capable of. Surprising ourselves rather than suppressing ourselves. Allowing us to be free at last. What a relief it is when we take the first step...