Courage

Have you the courage to dance on a mirror? Have you more
strength than the brilliance of a bee upon its knees, than
the kiss of pearls shoulder to shoulder?

- Houda Al-Naamani, from I Remember I Was a Point, I Was a Circle

The Courage to Love

Throughout life
I've met many obstacles
that stood in my way.
I encounter heartache
almost every day,
yet I have the courage
to keep on loving.
My heart breaks in two
with hurtful words that are spoke
and when I say how I feel
and everyone thinks it's a joke,
yet I have the courage
to keep on loving.
My world gets turned upside down
by people popping in and out.
I'm slowly dying inside
without a doubt,
yet I have to courage
to keep on loving.
I get put down
and treated like dirt.
Everyone I come around
makes me hurt,
yet I never give up
and always have the courage
to keep on loving.

-author unknown

Love

"It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death."

— Eleanor Roosevelt