What have I done recently that has required courage?

I work in an agency affected by decrees and actions of the administration. We’re having tough conversations about how we label our work, doing the work, and whether the former is important enough to risk losing funding for the latter. The colleagues I work with most closely have strong moral fiber and the willingness to have the discussion and to take action, both of which require courage. I’m preparing myself mentally for the possibility that my work and that of my team will be challenged publicly since we ground it in equity and the search for justice in making up for the harms created by past decisions and actions.

A quotation I read just the other day, in a book by Patricia M. Hughes, Creating Equity with Gracious Space. Pat facilitates a committee I belong to and brings her Gracious Space knowledge (originally developed by her and others at the Center for Ethical Leadership in Seattle).

“I like to remember that courage can be viewed as a merger of three concepts: the French word ‘coeur’ meaning heart, ‘rage,’ and ‘our.’ To speak with courage is to speak with heart, give voice to that which causes rage, and to embrace a collective effort to get to a better place for all.”

One that was the thought of the day here a while back:

“in the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper in the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.” — Howard Thurman

And a couple more I’ve captured in my journal, where I note words that speak to me:

“What we do now does matter, not just to ourselves but to everyone who is part of this web of interconnection that we call Mother Earth.” — Pema Chödrön, Welcoming the Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World

“There are times when you must speak, not because you are going to change the other person, but because if you don’t speak, they have changed you.” –Mary Quinn