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Courage in Daunting Times

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I’m collecting quotes, messages, and misc that bring me hope, determination, and courage when shit is dire and more shit is coming.

Quote from Wisdom of the Jewish Sages: A Modern Reading of Pirke Avot by Rabbi Rami Shapiro.

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

Something Captain Awkward shared years ago that I saved:

MAKE YOUR STUFF

AND SEND IT OUT INTO THE WORLD

AND THEN DO IT AGAIN

THAT’S IT, THAT’S YOUR ONLY JOB

STAY ALIVE AND MAKE ART

From Sam’s Song at Cirith Ungol by J.R.R. Tolkien:

Though here at journey’s end I lie
in darkness buried deep,
beyond all towers strong and high,
beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun
and Stars for ever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Stars farewell.

A message Kelly Sue Deconnick shared 11/6/24 – a message from her friend Sigrid:

Our job now, our entire fucking job, is to STAY THE FUCK ALIVE. Despair is an ally of fascism. Do not do their work for them. When people want you dead, every day you live is pissing in their coffee. Do it. Stay alive out of spite if for no other reason. Our second job? Take care of each other. That's each other here, our other friends and family, our communities, and also random strangers. Our third job is to resist. This will take many forms. Please remember that any group needs Tanks, DPS Healers and Support. Find the role you can play and put your efforts where they are most suitable.

A quote:

A lot of times good news happens slowly and bad news happens all at once. And so we tend to focus on the bad news that’s crashing over us in waves, and not on the slow long-term work that people are doing together to try to make a better world for us to share.

— John Green

A poem my Dad forwarded to me:

You are awakening to the
same country you fell asleep to.
The very same country.

 

Pull yourself together.

 

And, when you see me, “
do not ask me
“What do we do now?
How do we get through the next four years?”

 

Some of my Ancestors dealt with
at least 400 years of this
under worse conditions.

 

Continue to do the good work.
Continue to build bridges not walls.
Continue to lead with compassion.
Continue the demanding work
of liberation for all.
Continue to dismantle broken systems,
large and small.
Continue to set the best example
for the children.
Continue to be a vessel of nourishing joy.

 

Continue right where you are.
Right where you live into your days.

 

Do so in the name of
The Creator who expects
nothing less from each of us.

 

And if you are not “continuing”
ALL of the above,
in community, partnership, collaboration?
What is it you have been doing?
What is it you are waiting for?

 

By Venice Williams

Wisdom from Pema Chödrön. Source

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.

[…]

Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

Also:

Hopelessness is the basic ground. Otherwise, we’re going to make the journey with the hope of getting security… Begin the journey without hope of getting ground under your feet. Begin with hopelessness.

[…]

When inspiration has become hidden, when we feel ready to give up, this is the time when healing can be found in the tenderness of pain itself… In the midst of loneliness, in the midst of fear, in the middle of feeling misunderstood and rejected is the heartbeat of all things.

 

 

 

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