Are You Passing the Test?

Are You Passing the Test?

June: On Conflict and Courage June 5 Testing our courage at its highest point, isn’t easy. Often, we fail the test. Yet, there’s no need to get down on yourself. Practicing the virtues can go against our instinct for self-preservation. It’s natural to keep your head down rather than speak up and risk becoming the next target. It’s natural to act virtuously when it’s easy and everyone else is doing it—and to falter when it becomes truly difficult or really matters. The first step in passing such tests of courage is to be aware that you are human and that this is difficult—and to know that you will fail. But as always, you must get up, learn from the past, and move forward to do better next time. Until you show your wisdom, honesty, patience, gratitude, and mercy even when—especially when—it’s risky. * Reflection title: Are You Passing the Test? * Creative inspiration: C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters * Reflection Question: Am I practicing the virtues even when it’s risky? Am I passing or failing the tests life throws at me—and how can I work to do better?

Which Way?

June: On Conflict and Courage June 4 Can you go back the way you came? You could . . . I guess. But you might wind up in a worse spot. And also, remember, you don’t even remember how you got here in the first place. So that probably won’t work. Oh, and look—a massive boulder broke off the wall of the cavern and blocked your path anyway. Impossible to go back to the past.  Sorry, you’ll have to think of something else. Look around. What about sideways? What’s off the edge of the narrow bridge you’re standing on? (Yes, now you’re on a thin and narrow bridge.) Nothing but blackness. Might be water far down below, but more than likely, it’s a pit of spikes, skeletons and skulls of past adventurers (or even past versions of you) impaled upon them. Don’t want to end up like that, do you? Well, what does this leave you? Forward. But forward is where the dragon is.  Yes. Go anyway? You’ve no other choice! * Reflection title: Which Way? * Creative inspiration: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit * Reflection Question: What dragon am I currently avoiding? Do I have the courage to go the only direction available to me—forward?

Stand Up for Others, Stand Up for Yourself

June: On Conflict and Courage June 3 Throughout your life you’ll find yourself pushed and pulled in all kinds of directions by all kinds of people and circumstances—a lot of them will not have your best interests in mind. But you’ll go along with it because you’re afraid of hurting or inconveniencing others. Or because you trust their words and advice over your own, when in reality, what they’re asking you to do is in direct conflict with your authentic self. And listening to them pulls you from your path. You have the ability to stand up for yourself. To help yourself, which will in turn allow you to help others. You just need to take the first step—small as it is. Little by little, you'll move on, their voices becoming echoes until they fade and you can no longer hear them, and your own voice replaces theirs.  It’s possible.  You just have to begin the journey. * Reflection title: Stand Up for Others, Stand Up for Yourself * Creative inspiration: Mary Oliver, "The Journey" * Reflection Question: Do I have the courage to stand up for myself? To do right by me, so I can do right by others?

Have the Courage To Ask

June: On Conflict and Courage June 2 This idea of seeking help from none was ingrained in Victorian masculinity—and perhaps as well with a colonial mindset, but it’s a dangerous and lonely belief—one that can lead to festering mental and emotional wounds and isolation. Gordon lost his daughter at 11 months, had his head cracked against a gatepost by his horse, and was facing financial ruin. It seems a deep-running depression was almost inevitable given the circumstances. But I have to wonder, could things have been different for him had he the courage to seek the help he so desperately needed? I suppose conjecture is the only answer we’ll get to the question. Nevertheless, Gordon’s poetry outlived his despair and has offered others strength, where perhaps they needed it desperately. What I would like to pull from this beautiful poem and sad story about a man who died so young is that we must recognize that seeking help is not a weakness but rather it is in our nature as social creatures and it is often a wise thing to do. Sometimes this comes with age, in some sad cases it comes too late or not at all. Sometimes it’s the bravest thing a person can do.  Seeking help is a courageous thing, indeed.  * Reflection title: Have the Courage To Ask * Creative inspiration: Adam Lindsay Gordon, "Ye Weary Wayfarer" * Reflection Question: Do I have the wisdom to recognize when I need help from others? Do I have the courage to seek it?

Are You a Human or a Flea?

June: On Conflict and Courage June 1 June begins a new month and a new topic: On Conflict and Courage. You must learn to recognize fear so you can master it—that’s where courage comes from.  To think you’re without fear, or that it’s only something that happens to others is foolish—that is a weakness.  So feel your fears, face them so you can resist and tame them. After all, you wouldn’t want to be a flea, would you? * Reflection title: Are You a Human or a Flea?  * Creative inspiration: Mark Twain, The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson * Reflection Question: Do I recognize and acknowledge my fears? Do I choose courage despite them?