courage is contagious

Courage takes so many guises, it’s a slippery eel to appreciate sometimes.

I started this blog to honour the courage of another soul who has turned to blogging to turn his living with and beyond cancer into something more – something for people to learn from. His intention is so pure, his openess to vulnerability such a big step for him, that I was compelled to step up too. Not that I thought I had something to show or teach or say, but just to learn strength from being open alongside him. It was a show of solidarity in the only way I knew how.

I started this blog without thinking I had clear intention, and what I have from this journey already is beyond true comprehension. Without realising, I walked into an epic community of people who open up each day, who let go of the ego to face fears and step into the moment enough to capture it in words or pictures. Each and every person I follow brings something new into my days.

It may not seem very much to post a photo of a flower or a horizon. It is too easy to cast an eye over a poem or a passage and superficially like it. But, from someone who always professed to ‘not get blogging’, I see it now as so much more. Each post cumulatively opens you up to the world, tells strangers how you see the universe and shares the quiet thoughts. I have been cautioned by people who care about me to not write/ show it all, to not open myself up as wholly as any blogger does – but to honour that is to dishonour the way I blog now.

This morning, of all mornings, I woke to huge courage online. People writing of pain but with vigor and beautiful souls shining through in photos. I now live in a world where people help people see past the rough to the smooth. It’s the world as I’ve always perceived it, now experienced. So, to all of you on a journey; to all of you who call on the rest of us to see beauty, happiness and vulnerability as a power; to all of you who may have forgotten what it takes to write/ photograph/ mark what your lives are, thank you for your courage.

courtesy of Tao Te Ching facebook page