Courage

This quote gave me the words to share with someone I know, Seth Baines, who shared this week that his brain tumor -or as he calls it “tuna”- has “gone completely out of control.” Leading to the decision to stop treatment. With the expectation being that he now has weeks to months to live. Though he himself (based on how he’s currently doing) reckons that the time frame doesn’t look good.

He is someone who has shared the journey with his tuna on facebook. Which may seem strange to some, but read his words:

He has provided the narrative, and done so in a way that has caused me to be in awe of how he has been facing this. Sometimes causing a laugh. As strange as that may sound. And the other day, when reading this latest post, causing some tears to fall.

As I tried inadequately to respond, the Mary Radmacher quote came to mind. Giving me words that I think Seth personifies. Sharing so personally with us his readers. Including sharing about his sense of peace. I’ll once again let you read his words (if interested in the full post, read it here):

I think we often think that courage has to be synonymous with bravery and fearlessness and the such like. Sometimes they do go hand-in-hand. However, as the Radmacher quote points out, sometimes it is just about trying again tomorrow.

You may not be facing Seth’s tuna kind of awful, but there may be something that you are facing for which you need courage. Maybe try to just strip it back to “I will try again tomorrow.”

A parting thought on the word ‘courage’. It’s origin comes from the French.

Middle English (formerly also as incourage ): from French encourager, from en- ‘in’ + corage ‘courage.’

I once heard someone explain that ‘courage’ therefore literally means, to put the courage into someone.

So as you try again tomorrow, I hope that like Seth you have someone or something to put the courage into you. Someone to journey with you in/through it.

Peace, Jx

*Seth is using his website to raise funds for a couple of charities. If you feel prompted, cool. You can also see some of his photography. Just keep scrolling down.