Courage

The phrase gather your courage sounds so simple. At times I am very brave. At other times my courage is scattered so far and wide that there is no hope for gathering it. When it comes to heights and instability, my courage is well beyond my reach.

My children are intrepid. They do things like jump off of bridges (swinging bridges) hundreds of times:

Debra

I jumped off the swinging bridge. Once. In 1991. (I will only walk across it if there is no one else on it.)

My children jump off high rocks by waterfalls hundreds of times:

Audrey

I hiked to the waterfall for the first time this year. I did not jump. I thought to myself, "It's a good thing I never knew what my children were doing up here."

My children hike Half Dome (some of them multiple times):

Bruce, Samuel, Randy, Ray, Audrey, Joseph

Okay, I hiked Half Dome. Once. In 1991. I did not do those treacherous cables. Instead, I lay on the saddle and cried, and only looked down one time.

I regard with admiration my brave children and grandchildren (the two boys jumped off the bridge this year, with just a tiny help from their Uncle Ray).

But everyone needs an audience to appreciate their bravery, right? I'm a great audience. I'm happy to live vicariously through their joy in these instances.