April is the month of Courage

In April, I focus on cultivating courage which usually means really scary things happen that test and strengthen my character and develop courage.  I love it when I have courage - courage means being scared, but not backing down.  My experience with courage is that I should be afraid, I am afraid and yet I know that I can do this! Doing this!  I got honest and found out how fearful I really was. Then I learned to believe gain that God could and would help me, if I did the next right thing and gave it my best effort.  Then, I learned by my experience to have faith; I learned to trust.  Then, came the really difficult tests and I leaned that I could keep going.  I could have courage and be noble! I could become the man I dreamed of being.

I learned that courage is fear that had said its prayers.

Other reflections on faith and courage better than mine:
"You cannot be truthful if you are not courageous.
You cannot be loving if you are not courageous.
You cannot be trusting if you are not courageous.
You cannot enter into reality if you are not courageous.
Hence courage comes first... and everything else follows.”
Osho, 1931-1990
Indian Spiritual Teacher

"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We're afraid."
"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We will fall!"
"Come to the edge."
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.
- Guillaume Apollinaire
French Poet and Philosopher

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that frightens us.
We ask ourselves 'who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? Your are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
- Marianne Williamson
From her book: Return To Love

Don't wish me happiness
I don't expect to be happy all the time...
It's gotten beyond that somehow.
Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor.
I will need them all.
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Often the real test of courage is not to die, but to live.
- Conte Vittorio Alfieri
Italian Dramatist
Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
20th Century German Poet

And while it takes courage to achieve greatness, it takes more courage to find fulfillment in being ordinary. For the joys that last have little relationship to achievement, to standing one step higher on the victory platform. What is the adventure in being ordinary? It is daring to love just for the pleasure of giving it away. It is venturing to give new life and to nurture it to maturity. It is working hard for the pure joy of being tired at the end of the day. It is caring and sharing and giving and loving…
- Marilyn Thomsen

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.
- Victor Hugo

Hope has two beautiful daughters - their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.
- St. Augustine

The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
- Lao Tzu
Chinese Philosopher