“Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Today courage can mean showing up in a Zoom meeting and being seen to become part of a dialogue with the world around you. Also in pandemic times, courage doesn’t have to be loud. It can start from a tiny, soft voice inside you telling you to find hope and motivation in “being out there”. Sometimes it can take resolution to dig deep in yourself and find that you are capable of more than you ever imagined. This journey into yourself can make you feel more doubt than strength when you meet your past again and your present feels more infused with questions than with answers. Moving on from this “muck” takes even a further grain of courage. It can mean facing the risk to take steps forward, leaving some fears behind and accepting some fears as journey companions, being wise enough not to make them your guide.
Audacity and grit are often sparked by the care for yourself, or somebody or something, and they can make their call for action resonate nice and clear, becoming contagious. Courage is the faculty of making choices, finding firmness in discerning what needs to be feared or not on the way to positive outcomes. After all the “I could” or “I should”, courage can spark the first actions to take. Daring actions for people we love can make us feel the worthiness of our risks and “en-courage” our loved ones to embrace change.
Courage is deciding to move forward when the world around you can feel still or moving backward. Many protest movements, revolutions or cultural evolutions in history have found and still find their strength and determination in hope for changes. Courage is a movement forward with a vision and a purpose, instead of searching for comfort or meeting everybody’s expectations… Right, Mr. Waldo Emerson? :) How would our lives be without this courage?
