“Somethin’ fierce” is a phrase I have heard turned locally over the years. “That weather was somethin’ 
fierce” … meaning it was definitely intense. Last week, I posted on The Pit Stop of Patience and the importance that the virtue that is Patience plays in living our best lives. I believe that it was Elizabeth Barrett Browning who wrote of what we could learn of Patience in nature.
‘O DREARY life,’ we cry, ‘ O dreary life ! ‘
And still the generations of the birds
Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds
Serenely live while we are keeping strife
With Heaven’s true purpose in us, as a knife
Against which we may struggle ! Ocean girds
Unslackened the dry land, savannah-swards
Unweary sweep, hills watch unworn, and rife
Meek leaves drop year]y from the forest-trees
To show, above, the unwasted stars that pass
In their old glory: O thou God of old,
Grant me some smaller grace than comes to these !–
But so much patience as a blade of grass
Grows by, contented through the heat and cold.
Panda, my #bestlittledogintheworld demonstrates it. This morning, I am still reflecting on its power to wait and believe, and trust. This morning though, I am also reminded of the strength that is fierceness. Panda demonstrates such as well. The word fierce can conjure up images of violence and aggression. But its meaning can also illicit thoughts of strength and assertion. I consider the former to be faux fierce, and the latter to be the real stuff. I need the real stuff with my buckets of health, education, service and love this year. I especially need it with respect to continuing getting back to a healthy, strong body. Patient and Fierce, oh yes.
Fierce is that strength of both veracity and tenacity. Veracity is that strength of character grounded in Truthfulness. Tenacity is that strength grounded in Determination. Now, imagine Patience with this twin winged power of Truthfulness and Determination. This does not imply that one has to be the proverbial bull in a China shop. That, I still consider to be the faux fierce.
It does imply that we know our best destination; the one for which we have the utmost resolve. It does imply that we not obsess on that which distracts us… our frustrations, fears and idle fantasies. It does imply that we are (as my dear soul sis and I refer to as) holy all in full arse. We are wholehearted with being fierce. We are stronger than our fear. Indeed, the only and true fear we have is in not reaching for that destination, of service and life. We are willing to give our very all for it.
Imagine the strength that is the balance of Patience and Fierceness. Imagine the Trust and Certitude in having a clear and strong sense of who you are and where your soul knows you need go. Imagine that Patience to know you will get there. Imagine that Fierceness that will bring you the resolve to do so. One is your ballast. The other is your sail.
For me, I am pondering such capacity this morning as I continue my journey, and into a new year. I am reminded by colleagues of the capacity that this time of year potentially brings. I am reminded that I need to be patiently something fierce.
Peace, passion and prosperity… 
Barry Lewis Green, aka The Unity Guy