Goddesses and Eye of the Moon
June 22, 2018
Interview: VoyageLA
July 5, 2018
Fear and courage are emotions that have shaped my life in many ways. I am less fearful now, and that is a blessing. Whether that shift is the result of living more securely or being better able to handle fear, I’m not yet sure.
Fear does not always mean living under constant threat, although I have done that for extended periods. During those periods, the only effective remedy I found was to say, “Life, or whoever, do your worst. I don’t give a flying…” and mean it. In that moment, I changed from feeling frozen to feeling wonderfully alive. What surprised me was how long I allowed myself to suffer before I finally had enough and said no more. Being afraid, I found, is just as much a choice as having courage.
“If you lead men into battle,” my grandfather used to say, “you cannot be a pessimist.”
I believe in my heart that he was right. Then again, he never told me how he got to be so courageous. Perhaps, he simply learned it.
I suppose that is why I love to explore the subject of fear and courage in my writing. These are prominent themes in Eye of the Moon.
What do fear and courage mean to you?
2 Comments
Fear can be uncertainty of what is going to happen; this could be related to a relationship, a business, a plan for the future, the outcome of world leader’s meetings, or whatever.
But why may fear be present at all? Because one does not know or is unsure of the outcome, and how it is going to affect one’s life.
Fear can arise from a threat of loosing your house when the mortgage can’t be paid, or a relative is having a major operation, but again depends on the outcome of those circumstances, that are exterior to you, where you do not have the direct and/or full control over them; in other words, it depends on others’ intervention.
It can be named fear of what you do not fully know.
Courage is not its opposite. I could define it as overcoming any obstacles so one can reach one’s objective, goal or purpose. It encompasses being persistent and having conviction that, no matter what, one can accomplish what one set out to do independent of how long it will take.
This one does not include exterior control of others of the situation one may be trying to handle.
Fear has the connotation of exterior influences or control by others on factors out of your full influence or control; courage is certainty of oneself.
Hi Silvia,
Thank you for your comment and insights. The less fear the better, in my opinion.