“I’ve seen extreme bravery from the least likely of people. Life is about the moments when it has all gone wrong. That’s when we define ourselves.” Bear Grylss
Have you seen Bear Grylls’s show, Man vs. Wild on the Discovery channel? In each show he parachutes into dangerous uninhabited terrains, (ie. tropical rain forest, the Artic, the Sahara Desert). By way of his skills and experience in the British Speical Forces and his personal outdoor adventures, such as climbing Mt. Everest, he makes his way to civilization and safety, one dangerous step at a time.
He eats what he finds or catches. He sleeps in shelters he builds or nooks and caves presented by nature. He fights hypothermia, dehydration, and sometimes a bad case of dysentery. He demonstrates his survival skills to the viewers along the way (and when an adventure goes wrong, with a sense of humor, he uses it to teach what not to do.
Though I most likely will never find myself needing to make my way alone in the wilderness. The Andes or Zambia aren’t likely destinations when physically challenged by chronic illness. Must admit though I watch and imagine, vicariously living Bear’s adventures.
Yet there is something metaphorical about outdoor survival adventures in relation to our own personal challenges. Life parachutes us into perilous places (ie. forclosure, bankruptcy, serious illness, addiction, divorce, lonliness, death of a loved one) as well as exciting one’s that are scarey because they require taking a risk (ie.. stepping into something you have always been afraid to do like going to college, changing careers, finding new love.) As we search for safety and our destinations, the journey twists and turns. It requires making choices without a map, learning survival skills, finding resources and information. We have times of faith and optimism that we will survive and suceed with our spirits intact, and spans of time when it’s hard to believe we ever will.
The challenges that cross each of our lives can take as much courage as crossing the path of an anaconda or a hungry grisly bear (and can even shoot as much adrenaline cursing through our veins). We each find courage in our own way. How we find it, how we live it, how we look at our situation, is different for each of us and in Bear Grylls’s words “defines us”. If in the midst of a life survival adventure, if we are taking another breath, and not giving up, it takes Courage.
When our paths cross the paths of others today, perhaps we can imagine the Courage it took them to walk into the grocery store, to get to work or to answer the phone. If you are in the midst of a personal “survival adventure”, perhaps you can remind yourself– that your own Courage has brought you to this moment.
