If you've ever felt ripples of fear

Don't hesitate, draw near,

People spend half their lives avoiding 'situations',

The other half running away from 'situations'

The consequences of such avoidance

Are sins of omission.

Frozen secrets in rock or ice

Leak out into Trilobites staring out of the deepest past

Nothing lasts.

It is, of course, always possible for

Any woman or man

To stop this dance of death,

By just being who they are, 

Every act of being expresses

A nostalgia for the innocence from which we arose

An appeal to the essence of being flows.

Into the everyday life of the mind

Leaving those ripples of fear far behind.

It is a mistake to believe that the brave

Do not feel fear.

It takes a great deal of bravery

To stand up to enemies

Whether in our own minds or in the world outside, 

Strong beliefs can  hold fear at bay

While (wo)men bravely get on

With the important work of the day-to-day.

And, anyway, the opposite of bravery

Is not cowardice but conformity

Being scared of being in a minority

Or of being unpopular, of standing out,

And it is indifference and complacency

That murder the soul

That make people old

We must look up at the stars more

Not down at our sore and battered feet.