Do Something That Scares You

Yesterday, I walked outside

Out into a sea of dust, arid and dry

And so hot and so unbelievably radiant

And unforgiving

And I watched myself go under

And I felt energy rising

And then I saw this woman coming towards me

All heat and haze

But with a smile like a river that swept me up

And I took my hand and I put it in hers

And I said, "Will you be my spirit guide?"

And she said, "You don't need a spirit guide

All you gotta do is ride

You just close your eyes and then open them wide"

She said

Do something that scares you

Do something that scares you

And I washed my hands in the clear green water

Rushing from the mountain like some kind of absolution

Like a resurrection

I put my whole body into the water

Like I was transforming, a chrysalis

I could taste the dirt

The red earth on my tongue

And I felt like I was just a girl,

Seventeen, looking for something, edgy and green

And bursting and beautiful and undecipherable

With the reins held tight

And I felt like I was just holding onto a thread

Taking off, ready for joy, on a bird's wing, fragile

And I heard that voice

Do something that scares you

Do something that scares you

Do something that makes you feel

Do something that makes you feel

And I stood on the edge of that cliff

And I realized I was all alone

With no way up or down

And I was scared

And I started to climb

Up, up, up

And I could suddenly feel

And I could feel rain on my skin, sweet and cold

And I could feel all the pain from all the years

All the sweat and all the untold passions and the tears

Like rain flowering in me so strong

Like jasmine, and releasing me

And I fell onto the sand and I put up my hands

And I put up my body arms

And I cried with the rain

And I felt myself becoming myself

Like I was freed from the beliefs that I'd been handed as a child

Like I could see the world from above

Like I could live pure

And I took off that red ribbon from around my head

And I buried it under the yellow earth, scratching at the sand

Burying it deeper and deeper

Into the heat, into the core

I said

I did something that scares me

I did something that scares me

I did something that makes me feel

I did something that makes me feel

I did something that makes me feel

Alive