Courage
 

Courage is fear in action. ( or Courage is fear that has said it's prayers )

- Anon.

Not sure where I posted on courage earlier, but no harm in starting another thread.

Have always liked the last part of this quote from Alkie Speaks today. I am reminded that it works both ways, no matter what side of the street I am on.

Fear happened long before I stole my first drink at 10 years old. I remember fear at 6 years old, standing in the woods which was my safe haven, between my grandparent's farm and home. It was there that I fell in love with black-eye susans and still stop to look at them and give thanks for them in today.

Courage to face the fears and recover. Courage to live my life and let go of the past. Courage to detach and set boundaries and maintain them.

Courage to maintain my sobriety (soundness of mind). My disease is mental, emotional, spiritual and physical. Emotions often make themselves known physically and visa versa.

When I went to see a show on Intuitive Healing, they said that our feet and legs are vulnerable and they can be affected by fear of taking the next move, fear of taking a wrong step, fear of the unknown and other insecruities.

“Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” —Raymond Lindquist

I can identify, so often it is a quick fix. We forget that the scar goes much deeper than the service. Emotional scars run deep and take longer to heal. A band-aid doesn't work. If you cover them up, you can forget they are there and they can grow and fester until you decide to bring them out and look at them.

So much of my life was spent in denial, discountiing and ignoring old hurts, many of them traumatic to me. I tended to compare instead of identifying and got to think mine were not important in comparison to the stories I heard in the rooms. Pain is pain. Trauma is trauma. We have to allow ourselves to heal.

Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdome to know the difference. I can't, my God can, just for today, I choose to let Him/Her.

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You are reading from the book Each Day a New Beginning

Often when we're being tough and strong, we're scared. It takes a lot of courage to allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to be soft.
—Dudley Martineau

We've developed defenses for protection because we have felt the need for protection from the abuses of others, parents on occasion, bosses, spouses, even strangers. And in certain situations, our defenses served us well for a time. However, they have taken their toll. Hiding behind them for long makes them habitual, and we move farther and farther away from our center, from the woman each of us needs and wants to be.

Exposing who we really are invites judgment, sometimes rejection, often times discounting. It's a terribly hard risk to take, and the rewards are seldom immediate. But with time, others respect us for our vulnerability and begin to imitate our example. We are served well by our integrity, in due time.

Letting others see who we really are alleviates confusion, theirs and ours. We no longer need to decide who we should be; we simply are who we are. Our choices are simplified. There is only one appropriate choice to every situation--the one that is honest and wholly reflective of who we are at that moment.

Rewards will be forthcoming when I am honest.
Allowing myself to become vulnerable was my greatest fear. I had been hurt many times mentally, emotionally, and physically on my journey to the doors of recovery. When I met all these new people, I was so grateful to find people who had been where I had been, some hadn't walked my walk, while others had had a much harder road to travel, yet we could all join as one on this recovery road.

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So grateful for the freedom of recovery.

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