Like a Lantern

Dan Millman once said, "That faith means living without uncertainty- feeling your way through life, letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark," and what an amazing idea that is. And yet why is it so hard to let that uncertainty take us over and to let our hearts guide us? For I know exactly how I feel in my heart, so why is it so hard to express that feeling to the person that needs to hear it the most? It is because I am afraid to go out into the dark with only my heart to guide me; I'm afraid to get lost along the way, or worse yet, lose that person along the way or be pushed aside. But if I don't share my heart, then I will lose more in the end, and I know that. Life only gets harder as we age, as we get older, but it gets even more intriguing each day that we are alive too, so either way... we must choose which path we take and live with that. I must find what I feel before moving on and expressing that to the world and to that person. But I am afraid to lose it and to lose all that I feel because of getting hurt; I'm afraid to give my heart and get nothing in return. So I guess what I have to do is decide which is better: show my heart and take the chance of that fulfillment, or put my heart out on a line and risk getting hurt. But either way, I will have got out into the dark and I will just have to see if I get led back into the daylight or if I am lost in the dark for a while.
And I know inside my heart, that everyone falls sometimes, that hearts get broken and mended, that life goes on. But it's so hard to give part of yourself when you don't know what you will get back from it. And a piece of my heart may very well be gone forever, lost in all eternity, but maybe that's what I need. Maybe finally I will be able to move on either way because I will know; I might get hurt, my heart might fail me, but at least I will know, one way or the other.... So here's to putting your heart on the line, living with the uncertainty, and walking into the dark with only your heart guiding you like a lantern in the very black and uncertain night.