‘Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying I will try again tomorrow.’
I was reminded of this fantastic quote yesterday when a friend began to cry as she told me about her recent battle with cancer. As the healthy active mother of two young children her diagnosis came as a surprise and within a matter of days a rigid treatment protocol began and her well-ordered life was turned upside down. She describes it as a time of ‘holding in, holding on, and getting through.’ She kept her pain and fear very quiet on the outside, and in turn, her immense courage was just as quiet on the inside.
Four-hours of surgery, 16 weeks of chemotherapy, and 8 weeks of radiation- it all happened so fast there was no time to roar. The roar may have been absent, but in its place was that quiet voice at the end of each day which simply said, ‘Let’s do it again tomorrow…’ And she did. And she is here.
That is courage.