Eadarian Network

Hello my friend,

Welcome to the 33rd installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.

Courage: If he hasn’t it now, he will have it not when the strain is great and the pace is hot.

This is from a poem featured in the most recent Non – Sissy Poetry Broadcast (number 32). This is an often-overlooked concept when thinking of courage.

Often when contemplating courage, it is easy to think of soldiers, war heroes, or others who must face overwhelming odds and obstacles, whether these are hostile people, hostile nature, or hostile circumstances. Overcoming enemies of superior numbers, persevering in the aftermath of a great flood or tornado, or maybe it is simply moving to a new location and having to start all over again with no friends or family by your side. Each of these takes courage, but none of these are the start of courage. None create courage, they can only ever be foils against which our courage, or lack thereof, is demonstrated.

Courage must be lived everyday, exercised everyday if it is to have the strength to sustain us in times of duress.

So, the questions arise – Where does courage come from? How do we exercise it?

As for where it comes from, the seeds of great courage lie in every heart. Yes, you have the seeds of courage in you right now. Seeds may not be the best analogy, for unlike a seed that remains inert until watered – courage is not inert. For we must use what courage we have to activate and strengthen what we have. There is no outside force (like water to a seed) that can cause courage to spring to life and grow. Only the use of courage can cause courage to grow. Also, unlike a seed, courage can grow weaker through neglect. This is how cowards are formed.

The good news is that all you need do is listen to the courage you have and act on what it tells you, and it will grow stronger. It is as you face the smaller difficulties of life, rather as you exercise what courage you have in order to come out on the other side of those difficulties that your courage gains strength through use. However, if you cave in, abandon courage and allow the difficulty to best you, your courage will not grow because it was not exercised; sort of like walking for exercise. If you start walking every morning to get fit, say your goal is two miles a day every day for thirty days in order to reach the level of fitness you desire. If you quit after two days, you will not obtain the desired fitness. Your muscles, heart, and lungs will not grow in tone or strength to reach the level of fitness you desired. You will not be able to walk the great distance with ease; you will never have progressed beyond the strain of barely walking those two miles. It is an impossibility to obtain the result you want with out putting in the work to get there. So too with courage. So, a better analogy would be to compare courage to a muscle, one that must be worked every day or it will atrophy.

Even cowards have the sapling of courage in their souls. But they have never utilized their courage to persevere. They nurture pettiness, selfishness, and the weeds of life rather than the sapling that would otherwise become a mighty oak of strength in their life.

Ok, so what does this look like?

Well, for different people, it will look different. But here are a few examples of what working your courage, of what exercising you courage may look like each day.

1. The courage to smile at work when you work with real pains.

2. The courage to do your job to the best of your abilities – quietly and without fanfare – simply because it is your job.

3. The courage to learn what needs to be learned.

4. The courage to forgive wrongs done you.

At this level, I’m talking about the smaller wrongs, not the great life impacting ones. Wrongs such as… gossip at the water cooler, being overlooked for the promotion, being laughed at, being left out of a social event, or even someone cutting you off in traffic. Now I’m not saying these cannot be painful, but on the great scale of life, they are small and it is with the smaller things that we must start strengthening our courage. And it takes courage to forgive.

5. The courage to allow someone else to have the last word.

6. The courage to face each day with a smile. Knowing that it is full of potential and possibilities.

7. The courage to stand for what is right, regardless of the outcome.

Again, talking about smaller things here. Such as not texting at work or school if it is against policy to do so. Or not playing games and goofing off when you should be working or studying. Or, not laughing at a joke you think is rude and tasteless, just to fit in and be accepted…

8. The courage to check and ensure that our intent is actually being followed through with by our actions.

9. The courage not to whine. Complaints do have a time and place and in those times and places they should be aired. However, whining… it takes no courage to whine.

These, my friend, are but a few of the very rudimentary ways to strengthen your courage each and every day. You may not find all of these to be of use to you, indeed you may only find one or two, or you may find none listed here that you need do. But these can be a good starting point for you to examine your life and decide what you can do in small ways to strengthen you courage every day, so that in time of great strain, your courage will be up to the test of helping you through the great difficulty.

My friend, experience the freedom that comes from strengthening your courage each and every day. This strengthening may be a slow process but anything that involves growth does. And the end result is always worth it.

Grow in peace my friends,
Grow in courage.

Charles Yerkes
Eadarian Poet, Perpetuator, Photographer, and Fiddle Player

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To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.

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