Thoughts for a thursday

I've been trying to read several books for several months. I come in and out of them like the open doors they are. One particularly compelling book that I am absorbing slowly is The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times, by Pema Chodron. I've returned to the same bookmarked place several times, never remembering which paragraph I read last, so I always start again with the first one, which strikes me every time:

"It's hard to know whether to laugh of to cry at the human predicament. Here we are with so much wisdom and tenderness, and--without even knowing it--we cover it over to protect ourselves from insecurity. Although we have the potential to experience the freedom of a butterfly, we mysteriously prefer the small and fearful cocoon of ego."

Over and over again, like my return to these books, like my return to these words, it can be a life's work to step away from the cocoon, test our wings, and fly.