“Courage is a special kind of knowledge:  the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.”

– David Ben Gurion

I tell my children, and myself, all the time that courage is not the same thing as the absence of fear.  Absence of fear means that either we are foolhardy and in the habit of taking risks without thinking or oblivious to the fact that our world is not always friendly.  In the latter case, we end up ambushed by consequences that we could have avoided by being courageous.  Unlike reckless behavior or denial of danger, courage is born of keen sight, keen insight, and thoughtful consideration of the reality of what we must do in order to live our truth in an unpredictable world.

Courage greets the world with both eyes open.  Courage accepts that sometimes we are afraid; but it is courage that allows us to use our senses and use our minds to assess whether we need to proceed with caution or whether our fears are unfounded.  Courage is the ability to think when we are afraid and to make a good decision about how to respond to the challenges that meet us each day.  When we are very young, all fear is the same; and we rely on others to make us feel safe.  Courage is fear that has grown up; and when we allow our fears to mature, we find that we are able to face them and conquer them, even when it means staring down danger.  Courage is the sort of knowledge that teaches us when to be afraid and when to release that fear.  Courage is what allows us to grow in the confidence that whatever life brings to us, we will be able to stand tall.