“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela
This past week we have watched the Ukrainian people in their “David vs. Goliath” battle for freedom against the invading Russian forces. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has inspired his people, and the world, with his bravery and utter determination that Ukraine remains free. He declined the United States’ offer to evacuate him to safety with the words … “I need ammunition, not a ride.”
In her poem, “Living Crazy Brave” writer/musician/artist Merrill Farnsworth captures our interior struggles with fear and compares them to the made-for-TV moments of bravery. The poem acknowledges and is a quiet celebration of, coming to terms with these feelings, no matter the outcome.
Living Crazy Brave
It’s not about holding back the tears when life hurts
It’s about suffering the tsunami of grief and maybe
drowning.
It’s not about fighting off the love that will break your
heart
It’s about being cracked wide open and sucked inside out.
It’s not about being fierce or wild as a tiger
It’s about dancing in the tiger’s terrible stripes.
It’s not about being strong or destined for glory
It’s about clinging to the fragile threads of dignity.
It’s not about planting both feet on the snow packed
summit.
It’s about the vertigo of failure plunging you deep into
grace.
It’s not about pulling up by bootstraps or soldiering on as
arrows fly.
It’s standing naked as love unravels every tangled scheme of
survival.
– Merrill Farnsworth