The Courage to Take Courage

It was the first day of snow.

Mum enveloped me with all the woolens she could possibly find in the closet. I was all dressed up to go, but the war in my head started to grow intense. “It isn’t always easy to ‘be bold and do what what your heart says’, as they all say, you know”, I said to myself. While this thought was playing a game of hide and seek with me in my head, I felt my sister’s hand thrusting into mine. Two gloved hands tightly held onto each other.

I looked up to her face and she asked me if I was sure I wanted to go find Bailey, our dog, who had been out for hours and got me worried. I tried to nod, but I couldn’t. It was getting colder and there was a storm gathering. The nervous smile that was plastered to my face made me even more pessimistic about the thought of going out and looking for him.

Mum didn’t want me to go and tried her best to convince me not to. Her eyes kept wandering out the window with fear. “He knows his way home. He will come back”, she muttered. But there was this ache in my heart, the weight of a thousand promises that I had made to Bailey of keeping him safe and happy in my home. Even though I was just ten, I somehow knew that I had to make this decision on my own and honor it.

With everything that I had in me, with every ounce of it, I took my first step out of the house. All the cells in my body shook with fear, but with my sister’s hand glued to mine, I felt some kind of assurance seeping in. She understood what ‘Mission Bailey’ meant to me and very kindly offered to come along with me. That gave me some confidence.

“You’re strong, you know. I have always been sure of that. Don’t worry, we’ll find him”, she said to me with hope tinkling in her eyes. She gave me what I needed — to believe in myself and my decision. That was when my footsteps became bolder as we went further from the house.

We did not find Bailey that day, but I did find something — courage. The kind that is a gentle push to the heart, a catalyst at work. It possesses the power to bring you out of your cocoon and help you realize that you can fly, even if your vision is hazed with a few stormy clouds. ‘Mission Bailey’ reminded me that gathering the courage to be courageous can be found in the smallest of things.

For me, it was the hope I saw in my sister’s eyes and felt its warmth in her words.

And that has made all the difference.

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