Courageous Wisdom

You don't always have to walk through Hell alone....

Courageous Wisdom

by Austin Cates



When I heard her speak to me, when I heard the serenity that her voice carried so gracefully, my heart sighed as if the weight of a world was lifted.

I felt all of my rage and pain finally fade to nothing but a distant memory. All the rage and pain that had filled my very bones in the lasting years of my life.

I listened to her whispers floating into my ear like an ethereal song of tender bliss. Those words then became adrift in the blood coursing through my veins and cooled the agony that burned me alive from the inside out.

I could not believe how easily she stared my demons in the eye and turned them to ash. As she continued to stare into the charred vestiges of my soul, I saw the most awe inspiring thing of all my life....her smile.

For her smile was not that which graces the faces of girls or even women. No, her smile was something that I believed even a goddess might swoon with envy over.

There was a courageous wisdom hidden behind the beauty of her face. A wisdom that spoke to me the deepest of promises. "I have been where you stand now, and I will travel back down that darkest of roads to bring you back to the light."

Her fingers twitched when making contact with mine, like a cable to a battery, checking to see if any life was left inside. Then she kept her promise.

Step-by-step she pulled me through the hell I had thrown myself into. The fires licked at our legs and hissed at our faces before her purifying steps turned them to nothing but smoke.

After all the fire in hell was extinguished, she turned to me with soot still fresh upon her creamy skin, and that smile shown brighter than any star could ever hope to. Then something extraordinary occurred, and for the first time in almost an eternity, I felt my heart beat.