This came about one Sunday morning recently. I was triggered by a family member about "responsibility" and "choice" and it sat with me for 3 days. As the universe would have it, an old friend, one whom I hadn't been in contact with for 40 years until this past summer - reached out and asked me to give a perspective on Courage. What courage means to me. It sat with me for a day and on Sunday morning it came out with tears and heart pains and a beautiful brokenness that could be felt. It was an acknowledgement of deep places within me which I have lived my whole life. Carthartic and yet I was able to stay with the brokenness. I went into the day with new space, new breaths and new eyes.
What is Courage?
They say courage comes from the heart but what is the heart?
Courage is the awareness of something bigger than the present conditions
Courage is the wonder and freedom beyond the pain and hostility
Courage is the sadness and the deep suffering within me
Courage is the willingness to feel this deep despair and be with it and care for it
Courage is the inner me who has faith and believes in a better moment that this one
Courage is the whisper that calls to my will and moves me
Courage is the letting go of what I know and focusing on where I want to go
Courage is the ability to hold all this and not be paralyzed but infused with purpose
Courage is compassion and empathy for the people who also suffer as I do
Courage is knowing another can not see and will assuredly be hurt in the change
Courage is a paradoxical fight - to love and value myself despite what others feel, suffer and tell me
Courage is my self worth, the love I have for myself
Courage is change, a new dance in the moment before its first step - and it is breathtaking
Courage is the sadness and grief for what I am letting go but also
Courage is gratitude and tears for the gifts I received
Courage is the stepping out into the light of the unknown and uncertainty
Courage is a universal orbit that has been waiting patiently for me to step back on
Courage is my soul blooming in this timeless moment carrying the beauty of all that was and the potential for what can be
Courage is a bridge between all I know and all I don't know and all that is
Courage is the realization of sensitivity, feeling, awareness, will and action acting as One.
This One is the Heart and this Heart is Courage.