Working with obstacles is life’s journey. The warrior is always coming up against dragons. Of course the warrior gets scared, particularly before the battle. It’s frightening. But with a shaky tender heart the warrior realizes that he or she is just about to step into the unknown, and then goes forth to meet the dragon.

The warrior realizes that the dragon is nothing but unfinished business presenting itself, and that it’s fear that really needs to be worked with. The dragon is just a motion picture that appears there, and it appears in many forms: as the lover who jilted us, as the parent who never loved us enough, as someone who abused us. Basically what we work with is our fear and our holding back, which are not necessarily obstacles.

If every time the warrior goes out and meets the dragon, he or she says, “Hah! It’s a dragon again. No way am I going to face this,” and just splits, then life becomes  a recurring story of getting up in the morning, going out, meeting the dragon, saying, “No way,” and splitting. In that case you become more and more timid and more and more afraid and more of a baby.

The warrior is one who continually leaps, one who continually opens, one who continually goes forward. It isn’t easy and it’s accompanied by a lot of fear, a lot of resentment, and a lot of doubt. That’s what it means to be human, that’s what it means to be a warrior. It’s a process of taking off the armor that you might have had some illusion that was protecting you from something, only to find that actually it’s shielding you from being fully alive and fully awake.

Then you go forward and you meet the dragon, and every meeting shows you where there’s still some armor to take off.

–Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape

Somedays, the warrior in me faces the dragon through baking.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe (Adapted from a recipe my mother gave me years ago)

Gluten, dairy and egg free

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer + 2 Tb warm water, mix til frothy
  • 1 c. peanut butter (I went with chunky)
  • 3/ 4 c. sugar
  • 1/2 c. Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine peanut butter and sugar together.
  3. Add egg replacer.
  4. Fold in chocolate chips.
  5. Spoon onto baking sheet. Flatten with a fork. Optional: top with raw sugar.
  6. Bake 10 minutes.