Interesting that just last night I returned to the topic of courage and this morning I find an email from my favorite poet and Zen Master, Joe Zarantello, owner of Loose Leaf Hollow, on the very same subject. I wrote a piece on courage a couple of years ago when I was experiencing something difficult in my life and my then 10 year old daughter pasted a copy of the poem on her Scrapbook room door (see door pic):
Courage is standing up for what you believe in the face of others who don’t share your same views. It is forging forward into the darkness because you know that you have to. Courage is putting on a smiling face in the center of tragedy because you know that you have to stand strong for others when you really just want to collapse on the floor and sob uncontrollably.
Courage is putting other’s needs before your own and believing that humankind will be better for your efforts. It is believing in yourself and actually becoming the person that God intrinsically calls you to be. If we all showed even an ounce of courage, imagine what a wonderful world this would truly be. There would be absolutely no need for the small, rotund man from
I was reading Courage aloud to her from its place on her locked door (she was mad at me for enforcing her bed-time and wanted to keep me from entering to tuck her in.) Halfway through, she opened the door and showing great courage, expressed her deep feelings on thinking that she was old enough to ante up her school night bed-time. We had a wonderful mother-daughter conversation and ended the night on a positive note. That poem has lasted on her door for 2 straight years, sharing space with many other important parts of her life, including her Twilight fascination! And as for the new bed time, we'll see............................
What does courage mean to YOU????
Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment