Failure’s gentle whisper

Oh Failure, 

Why do I fear you so much?

Why do I avoid being so close that I can hear your voice? 

I know you have a message for me,

Something pivotal to tell me,

But all I hear is the shouting of that Madman Fear. 

His voice is so loud and so convincing

As he spins a tangle of confusion around me

So I can’t find my way to you. 

I know I need to hear what you have to say,

The thing you want to tell me,

But a forest now separates us

And I scratch my eyes on the thorns until they bleed

And I think I’m blind. 

But on I go.

And beyond the thick branches, 

Over the wall of imagined doom,

There you are:

Scratched and bleeding, 

Shoulders back, chest out. 

I barely hear your whisper 

Over my rattling knees 

And the loud hum that is my speeding heart. 

We did it! You say with a sad smile, 

We overcame Fear!

We stood when standing should have bent our knees

We walked with bleeding arms and blinded eyes

We forged on when others gave up and ran back 

We closed our ears to the echoes of 

Doubt and Mal-belief. 

When we fell down,

We stumbled back up 

And now we know the freedom of being 

On the other side of Fear’s Forest. 

We know our limits, Failure whispered to me,

And now we look back at them 

With the audacity to believe

That they no longer hold us.