Courage-spiration! Your Daily Dose

By Stephanie South, Program Associate, AASCU

As we recently mentioned in an earlier blog post, today, February 4, is National Day of Courage—a holiday honoring the legacy of Rosa Parks’ vehicular act of civil disobedience.

Given this, the American Democracy Project would like to take this opportunity to offer each of you a bit courage-spiration as you take a page out of Ms. Parks’ book (speaking of which, click here to read  more about a book that offers fresh insight on her) and refuse to sit down today, on whatever front that may be.

These quotes are, of course, my own personal favorites, but we invite you to share yours with us and the rest of the ADP community by commenting on our Facebook page.

As you face new circumstances, as Alan Cohen said,

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.

And, remember, as Helen Keller put it

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

So, today, if you find yourself asked to give up your seat, think on the words written by Paulo Coehlo in The Devil and Miss Prym:

When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.

And, if you end up having to move anyway, keep in mind what Atticus Finch told us in To Kill a Mockingbird:

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

And never, never, never give up, like Winston Churchill once said and Abraham Maslow conveyed when he declared,

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

And, always, remember the words of Marianne Williamson:

 Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.