Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love. -Rainer Maria Rilke, Letter 8, 1904
This is what people mean when they say dragons are princesses: notice the uncertainty. Perhaps dragons are princesses. Perhaps prinCESSES are dragons. Perhaps. Power hidden behind something seemingly fragile, delicate, breakable. Why do we always say something helpless wants our love? What takes more courage? How much courage to close your eyes while standing in the midst of that steaming, foul breath, and take in that hissing, spewing, drooling creature with the red eyes and gaping tooth? I am not challenged by the helpless that wants my love. I live in dread of the unforeseeable dragons who out of nowhere blindside me, they come thrashing in, utterly broken-winged, seething, and looking for my attention. Can I still lean in and give a great big kiss?
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