Last week, along with the rest of the country, I saw The Hunger Games movie. I am a huge fan of the books, and of young adult fiction in general, and found the movie to be quite artful and true to the world created by the books. A line from (not creepy enough) President Coriolanus Snow got my attention: Hope is the only thing more powerful than fear. It got me thinking on a level way deeper than Panem.
I have two very different characteristics that live in me, side by side, in harmony – most of the time. I am simultaneously a jumper inner and a super planner. Many times, especially when I get all excited and hot faced, I leap, then look – but the other 95% of the time I carefully plot the entire progression of a possibility before even considering making it a reality. More and more, I find myself leaping, then planning out how to manage whatever I have leapt into. I used to do this jump off the cliff thing every once in a while, now I’m doing it a lot. Not in a destructive way, but in a productive way in direct relation to learning to trust my instincts and my gut and a growing confidence that I can and do make healthy choices for myself.
It occurred to me that this growing tendency to really go for it with less inhibition is related to my growing sense of hope and my dwindling sense of fear. I’m not sure when or how this started happening – but I think it is happening in a big way for me. And I think Snow is right – hope is more powerful than fear. Hope squashes fear like a bug. Like a big, leggy, ugly bug.
As I take more not life threatening, but once scary to me, risks I get more done. If I take big chances (OK medium chances - let’s not get carried away) I get big rewards in terms of satisfaction and return on my endeavor. I’m taking bigger steps, instead of more steps. I’m taking bright red steps instead of faded pink steps. I’m growing everyday in leaps and bounds, not in inches and feet. Hope is crushing my fear like the nasty little bug it is.
And what perfect timing, because the world will be watching.
Post authored by Brooke Stone
