IN A MEMORY

COURAGE AND FEAR

COURAGE AND FEAR
What is your definition of courage? What does this word mean to you? If you can write the meaning down, do so. It doesn’t have to be one meaning; your definitions can be infinite as long as they hold meaning to you. Also, what does fear mean to you? Write them down too. After you have done that, write what gives you a reason to be courageous and what brings fear in you. The reason why am asking this question is that the two emotions work against each other, hence you have to choose the emotion to feed and which to fight. This decision is always yours but I would recommend feeding courage. What we fear sometimes come to be and you can choose to fall victim to fear or fight it with courage. I am not going to say what makes me courageous or what I fear and the meaning of both words to me. The meaning is my own as is yours. Fear sometimes can be overwhelming and choosing courage becomes a very difficult task to accomplish. Everyone once in a while falls victim to fear, we are only human. That will never define a human’s life. The world is always oblivious of our deep fears but the courageous things we do are easily seen.
Courage protects us from accepting fear that never brings anything positive in our lives. How courageous one cannot be measured by how strong we are but by the ability to choose courage over fear which is always an easy way out. Choosing courage can bring immediate pain. A woman who has been battered by her husband can choose the fear of the husband rather than the courage to do what needs to be done to ensure it never happens again. The husband believes his strength or the proof of his manhood is shown by beating his wife while the children are watching. The truth is the strong one is the woman who has constantly been diminished. A woman who takes the blows on her body and heart constantly for the sake of the children. However, this strength sometimes can change to foolishness. What if the woman dies, who would continue to protect the children that she keeps convincing herself she is protecting? The kind of a man who raises his hand to lay injuries on a woman is the weakest kind of human being. They question and fear so many things that they are afraid of their wives, the mother of their children, the woman they swear they love and know they love back. If you are a man and you think you have to prove to other people you are a man, then go fight someone who can fight back. Courage is taking care of your partner who one chooses to love even though they can be hurt because it is the right thing to do. The partner who protects the other from harm and only wants to see them happy is courageous. Courage brings light, far brings darkness. If whatever the choice you make brings darkness, then it can never be courage no matter how strong it makes you seem or feel. What you do should give you peace to be considered an act of courage.
A woman or man who suffers violence should understand that even though you are strong for being able to go through all that, it will never be courage. Never overcome one fear only to feed another kind of it. Every time he or she knows he can hit you or destroy you emotionally, he or she knows he has succeeded in keeping you with them. What everyone wants to do is to find happiness. Are the children you are trying to give a future happy or do they just worry for you? Let them see the courage in you. It may be tough at first but you will find the happiness you deserve eventually. If others can do it so can you and if no one has ever done it then be the first. There will be always another way to help you get your happiness and to fulfill your dreams and those of who you care. The darkness is comfortable and it uses your fears against you. Fear will always be there but courage is our weapon against it. Do not let the fears in you have a tight grip on you, control them.
The fear of how tomorrow is also always within. We fear the unknown, the possibilities, the consequences, all that is always there. The problem is the unknown is never known. Keeping the fear of the unknown a bay is the hard part of the fight. You may fight it today but tomorrow it will be back and also the day after. This fear we appreciate how comfortable it is after a while. Why worry too much about what you have no control over? Always believe that whatever comes you will find a way to deal with it and concentrate only on what you have control over.