I am only a few hours late. This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2015 and is for April 3.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following definition for COURAGE:
Mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.
The dictionary continues with the following:
Synonym discussion: courage, mettle, spirit, resolution, tenacity mean mental or moral strength to resist opposition, danger, or hardship. Courage implies firmness of mind and will in the face of danger or extreme difficulty <the courage to support unpopular causes>. Mettle suggests an ingrained capacity for meeting strain or difficulty with fortitude and resilience <a challenge that will test your mettle >. Spirit also suggests a quality of temperament enabling one to hold one’s own or keep up one’s morale when opposed or threatened <her spirit was unbroken by failure>. Resolution stresses firm determination to achieve one’s ends <the resolution of pioneer women>. Tenacity adds to resolution implications of stubborn persistence and unwillingness to admit defeat <held to their beliefs with great tenacity >.
So how does one come to have the “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty?” Is it something that is simply taught to us as we are growing up through the activities we participate in. Do we gain it by how we were raised or the particulars of our home life situations (loving homes, mixed families, children of divorce). Does it come from our imaginations because of not so perfect home lives such as spending years in the foster care system as a ward of the state because neither of your parents wanted you when they divorced. Does that courage come from absolutely out of no-where?
I ask because I do not know where my courage comes from. Sometimes it scares me to know that I am not afraid to ever tell my story. Even in today’s homophobic society that still believes that homosexuality is a choice – it is not, I knew when I was six that there was something very different about me, that also still believes that alcoholism/addiction is a choice – it is not it is a DISEASE that is normally caused by some other underlying disease that can be mental such as in my case being clinically diagnosed with BIPOLAR DEPRESSION or it can be a physical disease that is just too much for someone to handle and they are unable cope and find support.
I am proud to be who I am and to have gone through the things I have gone through. Does this mean I would do every single thing again, I doubt it I may be courageous but I am not stupid nor crazy. But as long as I have a voice I will continue to have the courage to tell my story to anyone who wants to listen.
Until next time that’s “What’s Rattling My Cage.”
What's Rattling My Cage 