Where Do You Find Courage?
by Laci Lee Adams,
HUUC Director of Lifespan Faith Development
Emily, my wife, and I have been talking a lot about courage in our home, since she was recently asked to serve as a panelist on a grand rounds presentation about cultivating courage in medical institutions.
In the course of our conversation, it struck me that, as Unitarian Universalists, this season of year is primarily celebrated for its connection to new possibilities, for the flowering of spring in our midst. We celebrate Flower Communions and Easter that focus on spring renewal. These are powerful rituals and celebrations because they reflect on the never-ending turning of the wheel. However, these celebrations might not have the same religious focus on finding, cultivating, and practicing courage as the rituals and holidays celebrated by our interfaith neighbors.
For our Christian, Jewish, and Hindu neighbors, the festivals and observances of this season focus on how individuals and peoples respond to moments of deep despair. For Christian people, Easter is less focused on the inevitable and welcome coming of spring, but is instead about the power of God to defeat even death. For Jewish people, Purim and Passover are about remembering the resourcefulness and resilience of the Jewish people to persist in the face of genocide. For Hindu people, Holi, with all of its fun, frivolity, love, and equity, is about the triumph of good over evil. These are all stories of how people and peoples find their way through dark times. These are holidays and rituals about marshalling courage (individually and collectively) to meet the needs of a moment.
We find ourselves in scary and uncertain times. One response is to give into our fears, to be overwhelmed into inaction, to allow the enormity of the moment to immobilize us. However, courage might just be doing something, anything, any small or big thing, in face of the despair! It’s not everything but courage is doing something in the hope that others might join us and that together we can meet the moment.
Best,
Laci
Image source: https://tinyurl.com/49cytftz