Courage

I  wonder who I would be if I had had courage. To have been able to step out into the unknown fearlessly like Sheryl Strayed who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in search of herself, or Robyn Davidson who walked 1700 miles across the Australian desert in search of solitude. Or Elizabeth Gilbert who traveled around the world learning about Eat, Pray, Love. Or even my own boys, who traveled the world in search of adventure, and peace keeping, and learning, freely being able to experience new things and new people. Or even my boys now as they fight fires, and protect our streets and communities.

I wonder what more I could have been, what more I could have learned. I wonder what stories I could have been able to share?

I often wonder who I would be, if I had big courage. If I had been less fearful of life, people… less knowledgeable of the darker side of life.

Knowing full well that courage is not the absence of fear, but rather that thing that pushes you past it into what lies on the other side of it, I wonder who I would have been had I taken the added steps past fear.

I have come to consider that truly living life in its fullness can only be done over the thresh-hold of fear. That place where courage dwells..