NOTE: This post series may include spoilers from the Zaria Fierce Trilogy. If you hate spoilers, please read about the themes in Zaria Fierce after you have read the books.
There’s a time or two in the books when Zaria is tempted to give up, to give in, and to go home, defeated. The lesson she learns is to not to give into those false desires. They’re ones we all seem to get from time to time about the various projects and relationships in our lives. There might come a time where it makes perfect sense to do just that, but not if it leaves you feeling defeated. Victory is the goal, but a victory over what?
False suggestions about what you’re worth and what you’re capable of doing. This boils down to two ideas:
- The idea that you’re not good enough.
- The idea that you can’t do enough good.
In the first suggestion, you might be tempted to pass the buck, thinking someone is better for the job. If Zaria had capitulated to those suggestions, which Koll gave her over and over, terrible things could have happened with consequences far more dire than making mistakes. It’s important to try, but it’s also important to be wise about how you try. Zaria will learn that when she puts her heart into the tasks at hand she can’t lose.
In the second suggestion, you might be tempted to not do all that you can do, thinking your efforts are wasted. Should the raindrop say, “I can’t water the whole earth therefore I will not fall,” the whole earth would be parched, for none would do their part. Zaria is not alone in her endeavors and because of that, she finds time and again with their help, the desire to do all she can and to be the best she can be.
Zaria’s desire to do good and to be good are her saving grace again and again. This is a message for all, because it speaks to us all, reminding us where our true strength lies – in ourselves, in our desires. The time to turn back in our pursuits is never when a dragon yells at us that we should. That’s the time when we should vigorously press forward; that’s how we’ll meet our dreams and be a light to others.
References:
What if the little rain should say,
‘So small a drop as I
Can ne’er refresh a drooping earth,
I’ll tarry in the sky.’
