Andréa Dykstra's Blog, page 2

12 Days of Forgiveness, Day 12 Just Let Go

I was ten feet up the wall, one finger ground down into a nubby little hold, perched precariously on one toe as I stretched for that evasive millimetre before I could clip my quickdraw onto the bolt.

My rope was last clipped to a bolt a full six feet below me.

As I gained that last millimetre, I felt the rope pull tight. I asked for slack from my belayer, and in those endless seconds of silence, I knew I was in trouble.

Every lead climber is prepared for this. The fall....

12 Days of Forgiveness, Day 11 Re-framing Failure

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
~ Thomas A. Edison

No one can deny that Edison was a genius. I think it may have been this attitude, this ability to re-frame "failure" into a positive experience, that made him so.

I often referred to myself as a "mini-genius;" while I was acknowledging my ability to learn at a voraciouss rate, I was denying the full power of my Self. I had not yet reconciled mind, body, and Spirit into one.
So it took me a while...

12 Days of Forgiveness, Day 10 Transforming Fear

"You are the living, breathing, walking dead!"

I can still hear Thelma's words, finding a way into my crushed and bleeding heart.

She was right! I wasn't living, I had simply learned how to cope with life!

And the thing is, I knew that I was coping instead of truly living in the beauty of every single moment.

I wrote myself a letter as part of my completion process with the sexual abuse counseling, and I used these words...

You feel like a weight was lifted. You have proven yoursel...