What will I choose...

My thoughts of late have been swirling in an attempt to find some pattern that makes sense to me. Studying honor for the last month, I've learned a great deal, and not only about honor. There are many values that are interlaced, when bound together are strong, but are easily torn apart piece by piece.

At the New Zeal blogspot, an adaptation of Patrick Henry's speech, at St. Johns Church, Richmond, Virginia, March 23, 1775, was posted. The closing lines struck a chord with me:

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."

How often have I sold my integrity for peace? Too often, and yes, I feel the chains of being enslaved to peace at all costs, including the death of respect, honor, truth. As I reclaim my self-respect, embrace honor, and recognize truth, it is wondrous to feel those shackles fall away. Is is easy? Not even remotely. This is not a new struggle for me, so I expected turmoil, as always, and there's been plenty; however, though the winds howl and the storm buffets, there is a new encompassing serenity that reaches bone deep that far surpasses anything I imagined.