Pretending to be

"Love you too.  Walk forward every day and embrace each moment as it comes.  Don't dread the future and never regret the past."

This statement is easy to say, but hard to live.  It is the essence of being courageous.  When it is hard to be this, I pretend to be it.  When I am terrified out of my gourd (whatever that idiom means), I try to pretend that I have this grace under pressure.  I try to pretend I am courageous like Aslan and wise like Yoda.  I pretend to be logical like Spock and emotionally in tune like Anara.  

All of this pretending and sometimes it can be hard to remember who I really am.  The truth is that I am whoever I am today.  The me that breathes is the best me I can conceive of being.  The larger my imagination, the larger I have the potential to be, regardless of inside and out.

I ask what this means.  Am I pretending to be someone I am not or am I being someone I pretend to be?  ... I want to believe the latter.  The thousands of lives I have read or otherwise experienced mold who I am.  I elaborate on their themes and build myself into creation with my breath.  Who I am, who my soul is, I may find that out one day, but for now I have the ability to be whomever I choose so long as I continue to breathe.  

I am the fool in the shape of a tree.  ... I don't really know why I said that, but it sounds pretty cool.