a note on courage
i have this quote up where i can see it every day: "hurdle fear, risk, chancing change, live incessantly, wet, in the tumbling center of the stream..." being a water-lover, it sounds like a fun metaphor, exciting even. and it is, most of the time, especially when the changes are my idea.
what it meant to me a few months ago and what it means today has changed, so i guess my viewpoint is what altered. i went into the quote thinking one of two things about courage: either you live in fear or you don't. that's true to some extent, in terms of not being a fear-based person.
but what opened up were the range of nuances defining courage. for example, when making decisions (particularly those that have a direct impact on others) there is the fear of how you will be viewed (this is huge! i/we can spend a great deal of energy portraying to others how we want to be seen and not even realize it. and how rare to be in company that makes it easy to be one's self).
and then i read, "have you cultivated the self-compassion to say 'no' even when this is sure to disappoint people?" and i had to stop and catch my breath. i'm no stranger to a book stopping me in my tracks, but it's almost as if it was speaking out loud. "no, i haven't cultivated that yet," i said back to the book, "but i bet this means i'm about to!"
and this was my moment to hurdle fear and it looked nothing like what i originally thought. i was about to learn that speaking up can rock the boat and takes more courage sometimes than staying quiet and just going along with the original plan. (insert your own specifics here).
the tumbling center of the stream? i think that's just all the people and things that make our lives rich, both when things are going smoothly and when they're not. even just one 24-hour period of time can bring so many changes. i think it takes more energy to flex and engage with those opportunities than it does to go to extremes or try to keep things the same. reacting is easy and takes very little practice, but also doesn't help much in the long run. discernment and strength under control are exhausting and a constant discipline but yield far better results, at least in my limited experience.
i wonder, is it so much about A or B or C in terms of events, jobs, and circumstances in our lives than it is about what we learn and who we are designed to become along the way? can you think of a decision that shaped you more than you shaped it and what aspect of courage did it deposit in you?
what it meant to me a few months ago and what it means today has changed, so i guess my viewpoint is what altered. i went into the quote thinking one of two things about courage: either you live in fear or you don't. that's true to some extent, in terms of not being a fear-based person.
but what opened up were the range of nuances defining courage. for example, when making decisions (particularly those that have a direct impact on others) there is the fear of how you will be viewed (this is huge! i/we can spend a great deal of energy portraying to others how we want to be seen and not even realize it. and how rare to be in company that makes it easy to be one's self).
and then i read, "have you cultivated the self-compassion to say 'no' even when this is sure to disappoint people?" and i had to stop and catch my breath. i'm no stranger to a book stopping me in my tracks, but it's almost as if it was speaking out loud. "no, i haven't cultivated that yet," i said back to the book, "but i bet this means i'm about to!"
and this was my moment to hurdle fear and it looked nothing like what i originally thought. i was about to learn that speaking up can rock the boat and takes more courage sometimes than staying quiet and just going along with the original plan. (insert your own specifics here).
the tumbling center of the stream? i think that's just all the people and things that make our lives rich, both when things are going smoothly and when they're not. even just one 24-hour period of time can bring so many changes. i think it takes more energy to flex and engage with those opportunities than it does to go to extremes or try to keep things the same. reacting is easy and takes very little practice, but also doesn't help much in the long run. discernment and strength under control are exhausting and a constant discipline but yield far better results, at least in my limited experience.
i wonder, is it so much about A or B or C in terms of events, jobs, and circumstances in our lives than it is about what we learn and who we are designed to become along the way? can you think of a decision that shaped you more than you shaped it and what aspect of courage did it deposit in you?
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