Embrace Your Inner Dragon Rider

[Written by Monica Rai Silver, HOYH Founder + CEO. Excerpt taken from a course in our Heartwork™ program; Heart2Heart (H2H): “The Tree of Your Heart: A Year Living in the Branches of Self-Love.” From the month of November, the branch of Joy + (In)Courage.]  

“The brave women did not kill dragons. The brave women rode them. #SaddleUp.” – Monica’s alteration on a Game of Thrones quote –

You stand at the top of the mountain, bare and brave against the clarity of the cold air. But you are not chilled by the wind, because the effort it took to get here is pumping the warm steam of self-love into your lungs and all through your powerful body. And in the view before you, in this moment of stillness you see a red banner wave, trailed from an object in the sky. It has a message for you, now that you have paid the price to arrive here, one intentional step at a time. Now that you know how to listen to what is true, the command ricochets off the rock and echoes in your perfected ears…

Stand in the fire of your own heart! Let it flame. Let it sizzle with who you are. The furnace of your own heat is what the earth and sun and stars are made of. You were never meant to be an ice queen, but a torching, towering inferno of creative flame. This month is about being fearless! It takes courage to let the joy rise that was always there, smoldering in a neglected heap on the floor of your heart. It takes bold fearlessness to own your fire and be unafraid of how it torches the world. It can only offer your brilliance; it can only offer the fierce light of healing change. You will not consume the world with your darkness and rage; you will consume the world with your fire.

Joy is the only wind strong enough to support the weight of the wings of dragons, and finds freedom in the scorching breath of hot skies and dragon breath. #SaddleUp, my fellow queens. You are the kind of woman who rides the ancient creatures; hovering on the magical brink between this world and the next, simply because you are the rare class of woman who goes to the edge of death and by the blood of her own life brings forth new life. Who cares more for others than she does for herself. Who learns to forgive and accepts the true magnificence of her glittering soul. Who sacrifices the legend of her own name and legacy to be the boon for someone else’s story. Who understands that her innate power unleashed makes her potential akin to the God’s she worships. Love knows no bounds with us women, and it is our bane and our liberator, our catalyst and our shame, our potential and the feather’s that will be glued together until they have become wings.

“Some women fear the fire. Some women simply become it.” – R.H. Sin –

The boundless hovels of self-expression find themselves in the ferocity of this month. Only brave women allow the audacity of joy. Be the bold breed of feminine who relishes in her conquest of believing herself worthy to fly the flag of ecstasy; to feel it, hold it crushingly against the chest like a newborn babe; fueled by the simple miracle of every breath, the gratitude of every memory, and the hope to be able to fly above the challenging storms. Joy is not for the faint of heart. Joy is for the dragon riders. Joy is for the woman who is fearless to feel the daring possibilities of life. Joy is for the soul unencumbered by the weight of her own failures and imperfections, but uses them to honor every woman that’s come before her, and all those who will look to her after she is gone. Joy is for the woman who knows that her story holds a place in history, who knows her emotions tinged with smoke and hopelessness and victory all bear engravings of triumph; small medallions pinned to the chest. Joy is for the woman who chooses to feel the work and do the work despite the years crawling in the mud trying to find and forgive herself. Joy is for the woman still uncovering her wings, refusing to cease excavation. Joy is for the woman who fails, and fails yet again, yet refuses to die. Joy is for a woman like you. I, am a woman for Joy. I am a dragon rider. #RideWithMe

“Rage on, oh dark rider! / I follow with a sword in my side / but with trumpets of God at my back!”

Joy is fierce and bold, fearless and fiery. It is raw – brutal in its intensity and stunning in its power to light the night. It is orange tipped flames on the scent of elation and thankfulness. It rides the strident edge of rebellion and revolution. It is the rapid-fire medicine that engulfs the self in the inferno of unfettered hope. It is, unequivocally, the most direct flight path home to the house of your blazing heart.

“The words give me strength, they carry with them a power greater than myself. Slowly, the echoes seep inward…and in the desecrated land of my soul, I lift my head from the wet and war-torn ground of this battlefield, and raise one shaking fist to the sky…and I scream a bloody and a glorious ‘Hallelujah!’ I will be heard! I will be healed. I will…be made whole.”

Your dragon will hear your call, and she will come. Climb on her powerful back, and take to the skies. The time is now. Some women fear the joy. Some women simply become it.