Word of the Year: Courage 2: A Poet Familiar With Fear

Audre Lorde. Art credit: Harriet Faith.

An author friend recently introduced me to the works of the poet, Audre Lorde.

Ms. Lorde had a few things to say about fear:

“I want to write down everything I know about being afraid, but I’d probably never have enough time to write anything else. Afraid is a country where they issue us passports at birth and hope we never seek citizenship in any other country. The face of afraid keeps changing constantly, and I can count on that change. I need to travel light and fast, and there’s a lot of baggage I’m going to have to leave behind me. Jettison cargo." 


“Your silence will not protect you.” From Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches



“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” From The Cancer Journals


“and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive”
― Audre Lorde, The Black Unicorn: Poems


"Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose
the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution,
but more usually
we must do battle where we are standing.”
― Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches


All Word of the Year: Courage posts here.

Word of the Year: Courage 1

Rio Grande Nature Center State Park, Albuquerque, New Mexico. April 2013.

From the movie, He Named Me Malala:

There is a moment when you have to choose whether to remain silent or to stand up. 

If my rights are violated and I keep silent, I should better die than live. 

Islam is our religion. They tarnished the beautiful face of Islam. Today, in a very peaceful manner, we record our protest. People used to respect each other's beliefs. Whoever ruins Islam's holy name, for the sake of politics, it is required to stand in their way, and not let them go. 

If I keep silent, then you lose the right to exist. 

The above quotes are from either Malala or her father.


I'm not one to do words of the year, annual vision boards, or the like. Nothing wrong with these things, they just aren't generally my bag.


However, this year is different. I need a word for this year, and that word is courage. A couple of definitions from Monsieur Google:

• Strength in the face of pain or grief.
• The ability to do something even when frightened. 

I don't know how this is going to roll out on my blog, but for now I'm looking at doing something on this word on the first day of each month.

The inspiration of Malala came to me first, because I figure if a 15 year-old can show the courage she has, then maybe I can, too.