Courage is hard to write about.
It’s something you can’t describe so much as experience, or feel rather than do.
It comes when lest expected but most needed. Courage fills you with the awareness that life, in all its many forms, is worth fighting for.
I’ve heard people use ‘courage’ and ‘bravery’ interchangeably, but to me they are quite different.
Bravery is gritting your teeth and getting on with it. It’s ignoring the jab of a chicken pox shot, or not flinching when holding a nail steady for someone else to hammer. We’re told to ‘be brave’ when performing on-stage for the first time, changing schools, moving to a new place, going to a job interview.
In these situations, ‘be brave’ really just means ‘don’t-let-anyone-know-how-terrified-you-are-and-you’ll-be-fine’.
Courage isn’t rooted in pretence and fakery. Courage comes from a place deep inside us, welling up and carrying us to do what we know is right, even when there’s nothing comfortable about it.
It’s having that hard conversation you’ve been avoiding. Accepting a devastating test result with dignity. Standing up for something when everyone else you know is sitting down.
Courage doesn’t replace fear, but it does allow us to take action in spite of it.
So, go on.
Be Courageous.
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