Twenty Seconds of Insane Courage

Over the holy week, unlike so many sun + beach worshippers, I stayed home, shifted onto my social recluse version and watched one too many movies and Grey Anatomy episodes. One of the quotes I've heard that day unwittingly struck a chord:

"All you need is 20 seconds of insane courage, and I promise you, something great will come of it."

Benjamin Mee, played by Matt Damon, uttered those words to tell his kids to be brave --- whether it's approaching the most beautiful woman he's seen at a cafe, or becoming, quite unsuspectedly, the new owners of an abandoned zoo.

I am nowhere going to the direction of reviewing the movie --- it has been more than two weeks ago, and had shown in theaters last year. I do remember a lot of wisdom in that single line --- and that very line jolted me out of bed this Saturday afternoon as I tried to recreate Izzy Stevens' 24 hours of lying down on a bathroom floor when Denny Duquette died. I lied there in complete silence, with no thoughts, no expressions, no nothing.

And then I remembered.

Many times, we're stumped with fear, paralyzed into not choosing to move because it's all so comfortable and the thought of venturing into a life without a certain something is unthinkable. Moving away from our comfort zones entail a lot of hurting, a lot of pain, it may mean a dislocated shoulder {in the event of a handstand gone wrong}, a battered ego, a room for misinterpretations, a wounded heart.

But that venture out of the line that separates comfort and adventure ---- that's usually the beginning of a story we tell our grand kids. Someone said no one looks back and regrets the things they did --- usually, it's the ones we never have. I don't want to be that.

I'm ready.