Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness. - Brene Brown
She had everything a girl could want. She lived in a palace with the most powerful ruler and she knew she had his heart. She was in a position to influence his decisions and to affect the entire future of her people. And yet, Queen Esther was afraid. “So I will go... and if I perish, I perish...” (Megillat Esther 4:16) she says to Mordechai when it was time for her to act for her people. She was anxious. She struggled. She was human. And yet, she found the strength to respond to the call of the hour.
Heroes sometimes seem like super-stars who are daring and brave and who lead lives that seem impossible to emulate. But Esther was real. From the very beginning of the Purim story, she experienced real emotions of uncertainty and had to challenge herself to push beyond her comfort zones. She tells me that when things seem too difficult to handle, it’s okay to feel vulnerable as I search for the energy that I require. That when the role I need to play is difficult and scary, I can persevere knowing that powerful women before me have worked through feelings of anxiety and fear, but have nevertheless found strength to go, to speak, to influence, to conquer…