Choosing Courage
Recently I visited a nearby waterfall with my husband. Though we"ve lived only ten minutes drive away from it for many years, we"d never before gone.
We walked up the short hike to the viewing area at the base of the falls where a rail enclosure had been built to prevent us from going higher. There was even a sign warning of the danger of climbing up to where the falls splashed on the rocks before it continued on down the stream. People clambered all over the rocks on the slope above.
"Let"s go up," I said, ducking through the rails of the fence. With hesitation and a furrowed glance at the sign, my husband followed. We picked our way over the rocks and traversed the steep slope being careful of loose stones and wet rocks. In a few minutes I stood in the mist of the waterfall.
"I"m going higher," I said as I searched for sure footing.
"You want to see the pool, don"t you," he said. "There"s not much of a pool, you know." But by then I was nearly there. He was right. There wasn"t much of a pool, but the sun sparkled through the trees at the top of the falls and the mist sprinkled my camera lens with glitter as I sized up a few arty shots. I washed my hands in the descending stream and climbed slowly back down the slope.
Near the bottom a father was remonstrating a young son. The reason he couldn"t allow the child to climb up higher was because he could get hurt, the father explained forcefully to the tearful child. Then I stood aside as a tiny girl of about four years climbed past me aided from behind by her mother who was also diminutive, and followed by the petite grandmother carrying a toddler still in diapers.
Courage and fear are learned at our parents" knees. They are often purposely though unwittingly taught. Will the small boy whose father was convinced something bad would happen to him go through life expecting the worst? Will those two tiny girls whose mother and grandmother helped them climb the hard part be encouraged to pursue even more courageous feats as they grow older?
When I think about my own life and the courage I have, the absence of fears, I can look at my childhood and see where my parents said, "Let"s try that and see. Or, "You go do that, you'll be fine." And I did, and I was fine.
I can look at my own children, and how they have conducted their lives as young adults, and see the courage and absence of fears. I know that it is because I said, "Let's try that and see. You go do that, you'll be fine." And, "Let's go higher and see the pool at the base of the falls."
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Wendy Dewar Hughes, inspiration for the Art of life, love and lusciousness, publishes the Luscious E-letter filled with fun and practical ideas to make your life more luscious. If you are ready to be inspired to dream, believe and live a more luscious, creative life, go to www.wendydewarhughes.com for more, plus your FREE gift.
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