filed in Daily Life, What Gets Me Through the Day
What is Courage?
Earlier this year, when I was profiled in the Washington Post Magazine, friends told me that I was brave. I was a little baffled by their response. Is it really an act of bravery to admit you’re single in a public forum? My courageous heroes include a friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer last October, and went through 8 months of treatment with grace, honesty and love. (She’s cancer free, today.) In the advocacy I do for immigrant rights, I hear stories from hard-working families who live in daily fear of being deported to countries that are a distant memory, and still move forward with dignity and hope. I draw inspiration from your voices, too. Whose courage lifts you up?
Artwork by Adarsha Benjamin
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My surrogate mom’s courage fills me up. I have known her for 23 years and she continues to amaze me. She has been single most of her life and doesn’t have children. Lois continues to walk through the feelings of loneliness and being out of place. She lives her life the way that feels good and right to her. With or without a partner, I wanna be like her when I grow up.
Lois sounds wonderful, and a great role model.
People who make the best out of their life’s bad situations.
I was at an evening meeting this week where everyone was complaining about being tired. Then, someone in our group who is a doctor at a low-income family clinic said, “We’re alive. And that’s amazing.” For all of us in the room, it was a humbling reminder about gratitude.
My friend Joan. She’s decades-long divorced (since her kids were a toddler and an infant respectively). She was a single mom and things were difficult for some time. But she’s carved out this wonderfully rich life for herself. She’s so involved! Now in her early 70s, she taught me how to kayak this summer when I went to visit her. She’s articulate and a voracious reader (people who read rank high in my book–pun intended!)
I also admire the courage of any woman who dares to challenge the establishment (e.g. Victoria Woodhull).