We often think that beliefs are defined by how we feel about the things. Yet, life experience shows it otherwise.
Many great achievers reach what they are up to through roads paved with difficulties, pain and frustration.
Do they believe in their dreams? Surely, they do!
Do they feel as if they believe? I doubt.
Read the poem below by a craftsman of words, Leopold Staff.
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The Bridge
(translated by Czesław Miłosz)
I didn’t believe,
Standing on the bank of a river
Which was wide and swift,
That I would cross that bridge
Plaited from thin, fragile reeds
Fastened with bast.
I walked delicately as a butterfly
And heavily as an elephant,
I walked surely as a dancer
And wavered like a blind man.
I didn’t believe that I would cross that bridge,
And now that I am standing on the other side,
I don’t believe I crossed it.
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How you feel about things and how you feel you believe about them may be less important than it seems. Feelings provide guidelines for a journey and help it to become a rich experience. Feelings about beliefs are radiated back as your level of confidence.
Your faith, however, is not in your feelings (be it about beliefs or not), but in your actions. You take the first step and then the next one.
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Sometimes you are sure of yourself. Sometimes you are in doubt.
Yet, you take the next step.
Sometimes, you have all the energy to do what is expected. Sometimes, you barely survive the day.
Yet, you take the next step.
Sometimes, you plan, prepare and see it to a great progress. Sometimes, your vision is totally blurred and you don’t see where you are going.
Yet, you take the next step.
Sometimes, you even forget to take a step.
Yet, you take another one, when you remember to.
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Your faith is your perseverance. You set yourself to cross the bridge and you do it.
Your feelings are your measurements in the given moment. They indicate the style in which you do it.
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The image above shows a beautiful work by Inge Duin. See more of her works on www.ingeduin.nl.
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