how to live fearlessly: tiny fears, tiny steps, tiny victories, tiny miracles.

Practicing fearlessness isn't just about the big stuff. It's about the little day to day stuff, the small fears that hold you back in seemingly small ways. Maybe that feeling doesn't even feel like fear. Probably it feels more like I-don't-want-to-be-uncomfortable.

Say you are sitting in front of the fire with your laptop, watching the snow fall outside. You're actually feeling virtuous, because you're working. It strikes you that it would be beautiful to walk in the woods with the dog.

But then, it's cold, and the zipper on your warmest coat is broken. That might be uncomfortable. Also sometimes it feels awkward to walk across the neighbor's yard to get to the park, it feels intrusive, and that feels uncomfortable. Your feet might get wet, too. All kinds of possible discomforts. Probably better to stay home.

All this happens in your mind in the space of about 3 seconds, and the absurdity of it would probably go unnoticed, if you weren't working with the idea of fearlessness. So you ask yourself "What would a fearless woman do?"

In a few moments, you are tramping across the neighbor's yard with your coat flapping open. You wave cordially to the neighbor, and zip your cozy fur vest a little higher under your broken coat.

I know it's little. It's tiny, actually. Tiny, mundane fears, tiny, mundane steps towards fearlessness. But it's important. And it's useful. And it's how we learn.

And if I hadn't gone out yesterday, I would never have seen the tiny miracle in the photo above: a perfect, crystalline snowflake caught for a moment - just a moment - in the arms of a glowing red rosehip.