Courage Over Caution

Choose courage over caution,
even when your hands still shake.
Even when the road is unfamiliar,
even when there is something to break.

Pack the boxes. Leave the city.
Trade the known for something new.
Let uncertainty become a doorway
instead of something chasing you.

Speak the truth when silence is safer.
Say the thing they hoped you’d hide.
Let your voice become the evidence
that fear does not decide.

Take the date you know may fail.
Board the plane. Walk through the door.
Let yourself be foolish enough
to wonder if there could be more.

Not every risk becomes a triumph.
Not every leap becomes a flight.
Sometimes courage ends in heartbreak.
Sometimes bravery gets it wrong.

But caution has its consequences too.

There are lives we never live,
people we never know,
versions of ourselves we never meet
because fear convinced us not to go.

And maybe that is the greater loss:

not falling,
not failing,
not being bruised—

but reaching the end
and realizing how often
you refused.

So let your pulse race.
Let your certainty bend.
Let beginnings look nothing
like how you imagined the end.

Take the first step
before you know where it leads.

Courage has never required certainty.
Only movement.

Only faith.

Only the willingness
to choose experience
over fear,

and finally discover
what waits
on the other side
of almost.

What You Didn’t Keep

Resilience of nature after an Ice Age
Emotional depth of the unexplored oceans
Giving like the infinite time
Support of a foundation-sturdy and strong
A guiding path of a compass
Heartbeats that are loyal to life
Laughter that provides sunshine on dark days
Dedication of the roots deep into the soil
Passion of earth’s magma uncontrollably bursting
Attraction of the tide to the moon
Warmth of the hearth in the coldest winter
Love of the vow chosen and kept
Understanding as a lens four a better view
Reflective of the trees that dance on a calm lake
Strength of a mountain growing with resistance
Motivation of a spark that burns the fuel
Calm of the deep breath relaxing before bed
Giggles that escape seeing confetti fall
Carefree as a bird in the summer air
Loyalty outlasting the North Star
Bravery as a soldier guarding the Unknown Soldier
Protector from all of life’s weathered storms
Beautiful as the Northern Lights
Rarer than nature’s made snowflake
Trustworthy bedrock-never shifting
Kind like sunlight through dark clouds
Dependable as a lighthouse, guiding ships
Respectful let’s voice in a quiet library
Patient water wearing down stone
Wise old maps that tell history
Curious with childlike growth
Encouraging like the wind pushing on your back
Reliable just as the earth turns
Fair like a perfectly balanced scale