Tuesday, January 15, 2008

I have strength, I need courage

You say I have strength . . .


but it's so much harder to have courage.

I liked this poem:

It takes strength to be certain,
It takes courage to have doubts.

It takes strength to fit in,
It takes courage to stand out.

It takes strength to share a friend's pain,
It takes courage to feel your own pain.

It takes strength to hide your own pain,
It takes courage to show it and deal with it.

It takes strength to stand guard,
It takes courage to let down your guard.

It takes strength to conquer,
It takes courage to surrender.

It takes strength to endure abuses,
It takes courage to stop them.

It takes strength to stand alone,
It takes courage to lean on a friend.

It takes strength to love,
It takes courage to be loved.

It takes strength to survive,
It takes courage to live.

~ Unknown ~


Here's to having more courage to go with my strength

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Might be a drop or two of courage in this Mary Oliver poem for you.

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Steph said...

And show him off you should. He is much to be proud of. He's beautiful and amazing, and he should be here. Thank you for sharing the photos, as heartbreaking as it must be.

anarchist mom said...

What a beautiful poem, thank you so much.

niobe said...

I like the poem too. Well, except for the fact that it makes me feel like both a weakling and a coward.

Anonymous said...

Niobe, I posted the poem. Who is responsible for our thoughts, feelings, emotions and responses? Us or the poem?

You Have to Be Very Careful

You have to be careful telling things.
Some ears are tunnels.
Your words will go in and get lost in the dark.
Some ears are flat pans like the miners used
looking for gold.
What you say will be washed out with the stones.

You look for a long time til you find the right ears.
Til then, there are birds and lamps to be spoken to,
a patient cloth rubbing shine in circles,
and the slow, gradually growing possibility
that when you find such ears
they already know.

-Naomi Shihab Nye