One Little Step is All it Takes

I was really really scared after the bad men came and broke up my family. The place they sent me was horrible, and I almost starved to death.  I was so afraid.  I'd never been that afraid in my whole life. Even of the mountain lions or the wolf packs when they attacked my herd family in the winters.

In my fear, I lashed out at anyone and everyone who came near me. I wanted to hurt them the way they'd hurt me. And so I used my anger to attack, never letting them see that underneath it all, I was afraid.

I think now that some of the people I was mad at were only trying to help me.  But I couldn't see that because of the fear - and my anger because people like them ruined my life, broke up my family and cast me out to die.

But then, I met some different people. They were nice to me always, no matter how mad I got at them.  They fed me carrots and were respectful - didn't try to run up and grab me like everyone else.  They were kind.

Slowly, I realized that maybe they were different from those horrible two-leggeds who hurt me.  Maybe I could trust them?

But I was so afraid to trust any two-legged.  They were predators, after all. But these predators just kept loving me, feeding me, telling me I was wonderful.  My mom today was one of these predators.  She'd come and sit with me, never pushing to touch me, letting me come over to sniff and nuzzle her. She fed me carrots and cookies and these red round things I'd never seen before.  YUM.

Even after I kicked her hard one day (she scared me when she moved fast) she came back and loved me more.

That's when I realized it was time for me to give these new two-leggeds a chance.  It was time for me to step up and be brave, time for me to have courage - the courage to trust these people. 

So I started trusting them.  Not all the time. I couldn't be that brave. But I started to trust them some of the time. Gradually, I trusted them more and more. Some of the things were pretty scary - like when they wanted to touch my ears.  The humans who attacked my family used this ugly thing on my ears to control me - and it hurt really bad.  So it took me a while to let them touch my ears.  But I did.

And you know what?  I learned something big.  We all have courage inside - and the more we tap into our courage - the more courageous we become!

So no matter how afraid you are, if you take one tiny step into your courage - that's all it takes to begin.  from there - you courage can grow and grow.  Until it makes your fear, and those bad scary memories, get smaller and smaller - and fade into the sunset.

How cool is that?  We can begin to ditch our fears with just one tiny step - into courage. We don;t have to be brave all the time, don't have to overcome all that big fear at once. 

We simply have to take that first, tiny step into courage.