Birds are brave.
Not because they fly too high, but because they fly too close.
Too close to our homes and us.
In the last few days I have had so many birds get close to my windows.
They fly, they stay for a few seconds and then they fly away.
I realized that this is how courage may look like for birds.
They step close to the edge for a few seconds and then return to comfort, which for them, is the sky. I learned that courage looks very different for every person.
For every single one of us courage reflects the many pieces of our story.
It is as unique as our DNA.
Courage for you today may look like simply walking outside to take a deep breath.
For someone else, courage is responding to a text from an ex husband after years of silence. Courage could be putting on a dress you last wore at a dinner with the person you loved and lost. It could be playing the piano for the first time since you were a kid.
Being brave can never be compared with someone else’s kind of brave.
What is considered courageous to you could be a walk in the park for someone else.
That should never make you think that you are not brave.
You are brave when you choose to take a shower after days of not having the strength to do so.
When you choose to respond to an email that has been waiting in your inbox for weeks.
When you get up in the morning knowing it will be a hard day and you get up regardless.
When you look at an old photo even though it breaks your heart.
For someone who is in constant pain every day, courage may look like just simply opening their eyes and breathing and deciding to take another breath regardless of how difficult the first one was.
Courage sometimes is simply the ability to step inside your own pain and stand in it for three seconds before you step out.
These three seconds make you brave.
You better not forget that.
Today, tomorrow or every day after that.
With many unforgettable three second courage intervals,
Christina
P.S. Listen to this week’s podcast with the magical SARK here.
