Courage

What is courage?

Is it derived from fear?

Or is it grown from the seed of anger?

As I watch a flower seed grow

It is absent of fear

It is absent of anger

But it is full of hope

Exercising faith while taking nourishment

Trusting that as it fights the dense darkness

It will find the light

Constantly reaching and growing upward

Until in the bright daylight it's fully bloomed

Revealing to the world its astounding beauty

This is courage:

To hope in spite of the environment

To strive in the face of adversity

To believe the possibility

To trust the light will appear

To be willing to love in the face of hate

Commentary:

I'm sure I'm not the only one disturbed by what is happening in the current events.  Being someone who is sensitive to conflict, I admit this is a nightmare for me.  I have to limit my exposure to news these days.  There's so much anger and hatred out there that it's too much sometimes.  I don't want to get too much into what I observe here, because this isn't the appropriate place.  I've perhaps been neglecting this website a little, because I've been sharing some of my other interests and hobbies, and I've been too busy trying to process everything to be able to sit down and get something written.

Now the moment has arrived.  I started thinking recently about the meaning of courage (strength he uses here, but at times they are seen as synonyms), and there is a quote I came across attributed to Mr. Rogers I really like.  It basically points out that courage is often mistaken for other things, and he specifically pinpoints the two things I don't like people using as an example of courage.  I don't like the portrayal of courage in the sense of violence.  It's that man or woman who has to beat someone up or blow something to smithereens in order to achieve victory.  It's just not my thing, but that's me.  This poem is more of my expression of how I see courage after my moment of reflection.