On June 25 and 26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in what was then the Eastern Montana Territory (now Crow Agency, MT) there was a historic battle between the highly trained American military forces under George Armstrong Custer and Sitting Bull, who led the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne in a desperate attempt to preserve their land. The U.S. Seventh Cavalry, including a column of 700 men, was defeated. Five of the Seventh's companies were annihilated.

Most American Children at some point hear the story of Custer's Last Stand....how the brave soldiers fought the fierce Indians, and how they fought to the last man. How the soldiers threw everything they had at the Indians, but were unable to stem the tide. Books have been written. Movies have been made. And Custer always ALWAYS is portrayed as the hero. Hopelessly outnumbered he sacrifices himself (and all his men I might add) in order to fulfill his duty.

The Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, however, were fighting for their freedom. And, for a brief period of time, they achieved it.

Every time I hear this story I think about a friend of mine who described the last stand of the Ego in very much the same terms.

There comes a point, my friend said, where you reach an impasse. The trail of reason and logic ends quite abruptly at a seemingly bottomless abyss. There is no alternate path. The trail before you simply ends. And you realize, with a shuddering sort of horror, that there is no way out. There are no alternate paths, no bridges, nothing to make your journey any easier or more plesant. It simply ends.

And it dawns on you then, that you must either return the way you came; give up all the progress you made and go back to living within the illusion of the Matrix, or take the leap of faith and hope to hell that either the abyss is an illusion itself, or that you can suddenly learn how to fly.

It is at this point that the ego makes its last best stand, throwing at you every thing within its arsanol. It reasons, begs, cajoles, threatens. It uses every emotion, every regret, every hope and dream and obligation, every attachment, every failure....the ego spares nothing to get you to turn around. To retrace your steps, and reenter a world when you needed it, when you listened to it, and made it feel important.

It is at this point, when things seem their darkest, when you swear that you can not bear a single more minute of the torture, when your mind is screaming at you to "turn around, now, before it's too late" that you must quiet your mind, do whatever it takes to tune out the screaming demands of the ego, and listen to the quiet stillness of your heart.

If you can take the time to listen, to hear, and to understand your heart, if you can find it within yourself to consider what it is telling you, then chances are your next step will not be a re-tracing of the steps, all those days and weeks and years of learning and growth, but taking that step into the unkown, and understanding that the universe will guide you. Step out now. I want to see your wings!

Dedication: For you my friend, as you consider the choice between the path behind you and the Abyss in front. Sometimes it is only in the letting go that we learn how to fly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot4tex5wiGk&feature=related