Courage is a beautiful word but oh-so underestimated. I hear the word “courage” and it reminds me of the lion and the mouse. Lions are seen as strength, boldness, and ferocious. Lions are obvious predators. Then we have the mouse who has to hunt in the dark for their food but still boldly runs across an open floor risking life and limb to survive. Both display courage constantly but in different ways. It’s easy to see who’s courageous when they are boldly standing in the face of an injustice, giving voice to the unheard or willingly walking into a dangerous situation. What about the quiet ones who display courage by smiling through their pain or sitting with someone and listening to their trauma? Courage has many forms and none are more important than the next. Sometimes courage looks like getting up in the morning and facing another day, while other times it may literally be running into a burning building to save someone else. Whatever your courage looks like, live it out proudly especially when no one else can see it for what it is!

Sarah Deats

Sarah Deats is a Behavioral Health Technician at RI International and the Hope Inc. Stories Inspiration Engineer.