A friend of mine once told me that he thought I was a courageous person. I was confused. I hadn’t done anything to my mind that seemed in any way courageous. When I asked him why he said that, he re-plied, “Well, you went off and lived in Australia. You’ve moved around a lot, even overseas.” I was rather stunned that he considered that “courageous.” I had moved around all my life – my parents were inveterate travelers. Moving was never something that scared me. It never occurred to me that this might be considered brave by someone else. When I thought about my friend – he lived in the same state his whole life, rarely moving, same house, same job for long periods of time - I realized that what is “courage” is a relative term. For my friend, who couldn’t imagine uprooting himself, it seemed a brave thing to do. It made me wonder if he longed to do the same thing, but stopped himself out of fear.
Who or what do you think is courageous? And what longing does it bring up in you, perhaps? How might you be “that” brave?
With love,
Rev. Sian
Rev. Sian Wiltshire is Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church's minister. Please feel free to reach out and say hello! She can be reached by email, revsian@ocuuc.org, or by church phone at (714) 556-2882 (x302).