You never knew you had so much courage....

The courage to wake each morning.
To take each new breath.
To feel each new surge of joy, doubt, frustration, anger, pain, ecstasy, moment by moment, broadcast in real time, on the screen of life.
To walk each new step, cross each unexpected threshold, never knowing where it all will lead.
To cry when you cry, laugh when you laugh, fall as you fall, rise when you rise.

Not necessarily to be unafraid, but to be even unafraid of being afraid.

To begin again, now.
To meet each instant with curiosity, fascination, and a little tenderness.
To never settle for less than life, less than what it's worth, because it's worth everything, everything that's worth giving.

To greet the day as it plays itself out.
To kneel before the dawn.
Prostrate yourself before the afternoon, and the sparrow singing in your garden. Bow before the evening glow.
And then to sink into the embrace of night, and its sleep, and its good death.

And to have the courage to rise again.
And breathe again.
And dress again.
And meet the new day - alive, curious, willing, even though you are raw 

You never knew you had so much courage.

And you are awake now.

ps/smoh