Courage... One Step at a Time

What does courage look like to you? I know for a lot of  people, including myself at times, we can relate to courage as being a big heroic act to accomplish something great. Some may relate to being brave and some may not. I've been told many times that I am courageous all the while not relating to it.

Today I want us to get related to being courageous because we all are. It doesn't have to take running into a burning building to safe a child to become courageous. There are many times inside of a day we are courageous without even recognizing it at courage.

What about the last time you spoke to someone you didn't know or went to a party you didn't know anyone at or stood up for yourself or for someone else. What about when you did something new or traveled somewhere foreign (this doesn't have to be a different country, it can be a few towns over) What about when you tried a new food or cooked a meal you've never made. What about when you went on a job interview or asked someone for their advice or asked for help.These are all things we may face on a regular basis that take a certain amount of surrender and courage to achieve.

I recently was in Italy with my husband visiting family and as wonderful as it is to be there, a certain amount of courage is required. As many of you may know, when getting related to your married family it takes  a lot of quality time and many conversations. This is a courageous act all on it's own but how do you do this without speaking the same language? This is my challenge as my Italian is not very good. It requires a lot of patience with myself and is humbling time and time again. Self expression has never been my problem in life but it is here. It requires me to be quiet and listen, not only to the words they are saying but how they are saying it. It requires me soak it in and learn. Lastly, it requires me to be willing to fall on my face so to speak over and over again as I try to put sentences together to communicate with them. I'm not going to lie, this is a huge challenge for me. Sometimes it's really fun and sometimes it makes me cry. Not only am I in my own struggle to speak and learn the language but I also have to trust my husband completely to guide me through a conversation and because he likes to joke around a lot this becomes a difficult task. ;) Never the less I made myself a part of conversations and had an amazing time.

One of the ways I choose to relate to my new family is by doing something with them that they enjoyed. I went to Zumba with his mom and ballroom dancing with his grandpa. Let me just tell you, I have never ballroom danced in my life! But, there I was in a room filled with ballroom regulars and no English speakers. Talk about a new and slightly scary circumstance. I let all my fears of looking bad  go and allowed myself to just be silly. This was one of the highlights of my trip and I got to connect to his grandpa and his grandpas friends effortlessly.

In this trip I got related to what courage really is. It's those moments we aren't necessarily comfortable in but step through the resistance or fear  anyway. Courage is moving forward no matter how big or small the circumstances and we are always moving forward.

"Small things matter. What may look like a small act of courage is courage nevertheless. The important thing is to be willing to take a step forward."