The Bravest Among Us

Have you ever noticed how the bravest people among us are often those who appear to be the most fragile? I remember in school there was this kid who was always so pale and thin. He was picked on by many of the bullies. Having endured that sort of treatment myself, I knew that it wasn't an easy road for him. So I befriended him. In so doing I was risking getting the bejeebers beaten out of me again, but I figured that could possibly happen sooner or later anyway, so why not make a friend. He was not an easy cookie to crack. He was very shy, closed, private and sometimes, when he would actually talk, he would say things that would normally make a person say to themselves, "Screw it, I was only trying to be your friend and now you've blown it, so to heck with you!" But what he didn't know was that what he held inside himself in the form of pain, I held in the form of persistence. It took a good month and a half, but he finally opened up to me. We became good friends, but kept the friendship very private because he didn't want to connect with anyone else.

Why did he not want to connect with anyone else? Because he was dying. He had cancer. We all have our cross to bear and his was this disease that was eating away at his immune system and slowly killing him. He didn't live that long. In fact, I think it was less than a year and then I was at his funeral. This was very sad to me. Not because he died. It was sad because others in the world around him were mean to him. It was sad because he didn't feel safe enough to share things with others, sometimes myself included. It was sad because others didn't get a chance, in their ignorance, to see the tremendous strength and bravery that this young kid had. And then he was gone. The bullies went on with their lives and became more abusive as they went. The world kept turning and time kept moving right along. In some ways, if one were to not see more deeply into things, it was almost as though he had never existed. But for myself and certainly for his family, he still exists in our hearts. We got to see the brave soul that he was. We got to see the vibrant life that he had. We got to see the Light within every aspect of his being. And then, like a burned out star, he was no longer here on this earth for us to see.

He still visits me now and then. I am happy when I see him. He is ecstatic that I have grown to become who I am and to do what I do. He recently visited me and told me that his time to reincarnate was close at hand. Now, in spirit terms this could mean immediately or it could mean sometime in the next decade or so. But he is ready to take on the world again. I hope that I have the opportunity to meet him in his new form, whenever and wherever he decides to come back.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com