May 31--See and Be Love

Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.  --Alice Mackenzie Swaim

    That's the crocus. 

    Here is an invitation to see and be the courage of love in daily life, written by Steven Charleston:

Sometimes, in this troubled world of ours, we forget that love is all around us. We imagine the worst of other people and withdraw into our own shells. But try this simple test: Stand still in any crowded place and watch the people around you. Within a very short time, you will begin to see love, and you will see it over and over and over. A young mother talking to her child, a couple laughing together as they walk by, an older man holding the door for a stranger—small signs of love are everywhere. The more you look, the more you will see. Love is literally everywhere. We are surrounded by love.

    What a great way to close out the month of courage!

        Leta

May 30--"Interbeing"

Turn your wounds into wisdom.  --Oprah Winfrey

    The following piece of wisdom, quoting Thich Nhat Hanh, comes from "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation" for May 29 (Center for Action and Contemplation): 

Interbeing 

Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh (b. 1926) has offered the world much wisdom through his personal example and teaching. Here he offers a meditation about a piece of paper to illustrate the mysterious interconnection of all things which he calls “interbeing”: 

 

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be. 

If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. Without sunshine, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. The logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.
Looking even more deeply, we can see ourselves in this sheet of paper too. This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, it is part of our perception. Your mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. We cannot point out one thing that is not here—time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. That is why I think the word inter-be should be in the dictionary. “To be” is to inter-be. We cannot just be by ourselves alone. We have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.
Suppose we try to return one of the elements to its source. . . . Without non-paper elements, like mind, logger, sunshine and so on, there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it.

    We have suffered many wounds with our attitude of separation. Let the wisdom of interbeing help us recognize the oneness of all life. 

        Leta

May 29--John Wayne Knows

Courage is being scared to death--and saddling up anyway.  --John Wayne

    I figure John Wayne should know. He was one of my mother's favorite actors, so I saw a LOT of John Wayne growing up. It's kind of comical that I ended up in wild west cowboy territory after being raised in Pennsylvania. Kansas may as well have been on another planet when I was growing up--it was so far away. How our world has changed!

    The most scared I have ever been was in the plane flying up to skydive. Once the plane takes off, the realization sets in that you are not coming down IN the plane. So I had about 15-20 minutes of panic-stricken "what was I thinking!?!?!?" terror until the plane reached altitude for the leap. Terror turned instantly to ecstasy as my tandem partner and I leaned off the step and into space. 

    Sky-diving terror doesn't apply to most folks. It's the daily scares...facing day-after-day medical treatment; concern over loved-ones' safety; traffic; will our kids turn out OK; another day at an unsatisfying job. Daily living brings all sorts of challenges, but we keep on keeping on. 

    "Saddling up" makes me giggle, as I'm positively terrified of riding a horse. 

    Off we go,

        Leta

May 28--"Keep on the Sunny Side of Life"

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.  --Helen Keller

    To paraphrase Henry Ford: whether you think you can or you can't, you're right. Ya gotta believe, ya gotta have hope, ya gotta be a dreamer to adventure as Ms. Keller suggested. As I've told people about my recent trip driving solo almost 3,000 miles, along with the adventure to the Washington Nationals game by myself, most women have said, "I could never do that." Yep, that's right, with that mindset. How much fun is prematurely beaten to death by pessimists?  

    Flipping the light switch or waking up your cell phone puts you in touch with great optimists Edison and Bell. If they, along with thousands of other inventors, had not believed, where would we be today? Would we have put men on the moon? Would we have the innovative medical treatments that have saved so many from pain, disease and early death? Would we know the many wonders of our magnificent planet?

    It's a fairly simple choice, whether to be an optimist or a pessimist. Be an optimist--if nothing else, you'll annoy the hell out of the pessimists.

    Have a nice day! 😉😉

        Leta

An optimistic gecko

May 27--Simple Life Courage

The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of the final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. 
  --John F. Kennedy

    This encourages thoughts within me about the courage in daily living. These things take courage:

• learning to walk
• getting on that giant bus and going to school
• making friends
• taking tests
• learning to swim
• asking someone out
• learning to drive a car
• getting married
• living long-term with another human
• owning a pet
• stating one's needs
• buying a house
• living within one's means
• birthing children
• raising children
• witnessing a child's illness or failure
• maintaining a self-care discipline
• changing jobs or careers
• traveling to unfamiliar areas
• becoming an empty-nester
• undergoing medical treatment or surgery
• growing old

    I doubt we think much about these natural parts of life as taking courage--these are the "less dramatic spectacles." We are using our courage muscles from day one, and yes, there can certainly be a mix of triumph and tragedy. The glory of being human is that we keep forging ahead, one day at a time. 

    Onward,

        Leta

May 26--You Can Survive. Will You Thrive?

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.  --J. K. Rowling

    There's surviving, and then there's thriving. I think the tendency initially with setbacks is to focus on just surviving. Consider of the loss of a loved one. We just want to survive the grief. Thriving doesn't enter the picture for a while. This was true of the pandemic lock-down, too. At first, our thoughts went to survival, but many of us created ways to actually thrive during it. I believe it is the security of knowing we can survive setbacks that enables us to reach further into thriving. 

    An important aspect of survival that comes to me at the moment is the recognition that everything has a lifespan. Everything--relationships, jobs, activities, vacations, lives--comes to an end at some point. This knowledge may not make the ending any easier, but it is wisdom that makes us stronger in handling the ending. Ultimately, it is the inherent impermanence of life that pushes us to live fully, to thrive. 

    Enjoying this day,

        Leta

May 25--The Best Option

When in doubt, tell the truth.  --Mark Twain

    LOL. I love Twain's sense of humor. However, I'm sure he meant this quite seriously. Why is this quote included in a month themed on courage? It is not always an easy task to tell the truth, to yourself or to someone else.

    I refer you to the May 23 post: Four Questions. I'm becoming ever more aware of my codependent tendencies, which come with the territory of being raised by addicts and being a recovering addict myself. I learned to say what I believed people wanted me to say, to be who they wanted me to be. Being me, telling the truth, is a daily practice for me. I am grateful for the awareness that leads to choice. 

    Life is good, and that's the truth!

        Leta