Just the Way You Are

by Beth Moran

I would have missed all of this, if I’d listened to the guilt and the fear. Spent my evenings watching other people out there enjoying the world. Interesting people. With lives and dreams and minds of their own.

today was a new day, rich with endless possibilities as beautiful and magnificent as this new dawn.

there are imperfect, mixed-up, complicated people everywhere. People who are simply doing the best they can to shake off whatever’s been dumped on them, pick themselves up and keep on going.

I will make a thousand mistakes, I will take many wrong turns, and I may well fail spectacularly, along with every other person who ever lived. And when these things happen, I will shake it off and get back up again – maybe accepting a helping hand, if I need it – and I will keep on going.

‘Because a tiny chance is still a chance. And that makes it worth it.’

‘Honestly, not many heroes wear capes or have huge muscles,’ I replied. ‘Most are ordinary people who simply have the courage to do the right thing when it needs to be done.’

Is there a bigger risk than choosing to be yourself, however boring or peculiar that might be, and allowing other people to know that person, while committing to loving them for the long haul?