“You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” –Some famous Greek philosopher that died around BC 270. Maybe.
Twice a day.
That’s how much I’ve been blogging. Unfortunately, you have only seen half of the product. The other half is tucked away in an archive, maybe to stay there forever. Maybe it will come out one day, but today is not the day for that. I’m not quite brave enough yet for the world to read every little thing about me.
What I know:
I want to talk about an attribute that I never thought I ever had much of: courage. When I think of courage or a courageous person, I think about a fireman, or a policeman, or a soldier. I think of someone who puts themselves in danger to help other people; someone who puts fear and apprehension aside to do the right thing, no matter how hard. I think of someone strong.
I once ran out into the street to help a car crash victim (actually, I’ve done that more than once.) I once performed CPR on a woman and accidentally broke one of her ribs. I stood up to a boyfriend who was belligerent and disrespectful to me. I’ve gone white water rafting, bungee jumping, and “Drop Zone” riding. I’ve performed in front of thousands of people and made many speeches and presentations. As a retail manager, I tackled a store closing with all of our sanities intact. If all of that isn’t courageous, I don’t know what is.
Parenting is the scariest and most uncertain thing I’ve ever done. I know NOTHING about being a parent. Sure, being a parent requires patience, diligence, endurance… and many other things. It takes every ounce of fearlessness I have to close his door at night after he’s fallen asleep and trust that he’s going to be fine. I dug for every morsel of confidence when I put my baby in the car at 1 a.m., raced to the emergency room, and kept myself together for the following three days.
What they say:
I *heart* Wiki. Yes, yes… I know that it’s not always accurate, but is there ANYTHING that Wikipedia doesn’t know? This is what they have to say about courage:
“Courage, also known as bravery, will, and intrepidity, is the ability to confront fear, pain, risk/danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. “Physical courage” is courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, death, or threat of death, while “Moral Courage” is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement. Courage is the mental and moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand fear, danger, or difficulty.”
Can I get some of this, please? Oh, and can I also get it to go? Wrap it up nice and tight – I don’t want any of it to leak out on the way home…
What I need:
I’m not looking for any comment on the following statement: I’ve been feeling pretty cowardly lately. Really now, how many of us ever thought that being a parent would require such a vast amount of courage? Yet again, here is another topic that should at least be thought about during Prenatal classes. Maybe one day I’ll conduct my own series of Prenatal classes that portray the REAL challenges and joys of having a baby. Or maybe that’s what I’ll write my book about. Who knows.
I need courage. We both need courage. We need bravery because as new parents, we have a lot of uncertainty and insecurities right now. Well, at least I do.
“Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway.” Dr. Robert Anthony, Self-help author, Really smart dude
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