Courage is a word that tempts us to think outwardly, to run bravely
against opposing fire, to do something under besieging circumstance, and
perhaps, above all, to be seen to do it in public, to show courage; to
be celebrated in story, rewarded with medals, given the accolade, but a
look at its linguistic origins is to look in a more interior direction
and toward its original template, the old Norman French. Courage is the
measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a
community, a work; a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go
anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already
feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of
those consequences.
David Whyte shares more.
