Courage: Openness to Life in the Moment
INTRODUCTION
Does it make sense for you to think of yourself as being an expression of courage? Well, despite the many words that have been shared about this word, and the many actions taken in its name, I contend that courage is an ‘in the moment’ feeling…
About Your Courage (About Your Life)
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
– Anaïs Nin
Some More Words On The ‘Bravery’ Word
Like love (loss and being yourself…), a lot has been written about courage.
There are many fine words, courage quotations galore and ‘heroic actions’ from the past that speak to this C-word.
Yet courage is still much mis-understood. Because words don’t really cut it. And neither do actions.
More Than Words, Though, More Than Actions
Can you imagine seriously trying to describe love via words or actions, for example.
Yes, Rumi did a great job when it comes to talking about love, but only because he used his words to point to the invisible, the formless.
And the same goes for ‘loss’ – the grief of losing a loved one, for example, no-one can describe this via words and actions; it is a feeling, unique to each person.
As for ‘being yourself’, this is the wordless experience of looking at an ever-changing picture that seemingly reflects your values and fears and hopes, the picture is never finished.
(By the way courage may well be experienced in love, loss and in being yourself.)
Courage Is A Feeling
So, then, courage is NOT merely these fine words…
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.
– Ambrose RedmoonCourage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
– Winston ChurchilThe greatest test of courage on the earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
– R. G. Ingersoll
Much better words might be these, and where they point to…
Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
– Raymond LindquistLife shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
– Anais NinCourage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
– Winston Churchill
Then there are the wise words that are both right and wrong, helpful and not so…
One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
– Maya Angelou
Understanding ‘Courage’, Then
Courage is…
- more a feeling, than a word or an action
- who you are
- an ebb and a flow
Yes quite simply the greatest courage in the world is simply being yourself – ALL of yourself, the feelings you enjoy, the feelings you’d rather forget, and especially the feelings that just don’t make sense: “Please make it go away!”.
This word is much misused. (Much like the word God, strangely.)
This word seemingly urges us on “into the fire” or “against the enemy”, when really all it’s whispering – in my opinion, anyway – is “just be yourself”.
Because… being yourself, all of you – the loss, the love, the not knowing what’s coming next – because all of that really is okay.
Do you see that?
3 Minute Heroes Video
Here’s what came to me as I shared my thoughts on the courage-word during a 3 Minute Heroes video I recorded in December, 2014:
Whilst You Are Down Here...
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