Several things struck me and came together this morning.  The first was this, “Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid,”  Franklin P. Jones.  This quote is great, but it also made me think about why are we often seen as ‘brave’ when we are sacrificing for the sake of others, and why are we seen as selfish, silly or unreasonable when sacrificing for ourselves?

The second thing that struck me was Seth Godin’s blog post this morning on “unreasonable” http://tinyurl.com/4bfqeke  .  What is unreasonable to you is perhaps not unreasonable to another.  Knowing what others see as my ‘unreasonable’ behavior surfaces for me at the point where I can clearly see who is there to support me and believes in me, compared to who does not support what they see as my “unreasonable” behavior, because it takes him/her out of their comfort zone.

And third, I saw the following as well this morning, after the two above.
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear,” Ambrose Redmoon.  The judgement is fully yours, because the consequences are yours as well.

Finally, I saw this, “Courage is the power to let go of the familiar,” Raymond Lindquist.  If the familiar isn’t what is making you feel good, empowered, rewarded, sane, why stay in it?  Maybe this means dealing with the fear of failing, or the fear of losing someone, the fear of living in your car or a myriad of other things, but what is worse, dealing with the unfamiliar or slowly deadening to the world by staying in the un-fulfilling familiar?  

Be brave friends and dare to live greatly.