On Courage

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. - Harper Lee (1926 - ), To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960

Courage, I think, may be found in the silent pep talks we have with ourselves in the bathroom mirror after we wipe away the fog and search to find clarity in the eyes that gaze back at us. It is the quiet words of encouragement we speak beneath our breath when we say, "you can do this" or "it's OK" as we summon the strength to do something that we have been avoiding..or something that scares us. It is found in the quiet victories claimed in the promises we make to ourselves...the ones that we keep...the ones that we don't share with the rest of the world.

Regardless of whether our courage is authentic or an act...it changes us and the way we move through our world. Some say that courage is about being afraid but being the only one in the room that knows it. Perhaps that is why our courage feels sometimes like an ill-fitting shirt -- choking us a little, too tight in the chest, uncomfortable -- but we put it on and move forward because without it we are naked and vulnerable and...eventually...we find comfort in the fit.