Courage Arrives

My courage arrived when I didn’t leave,
revealing itself at the center of a blossom that love began,
unfurling, 
seducing my attention,
saying yes again and again,
opening
until all petals fell away,
and only the memory of us was left in that place of glory.

My courage found purchase in the unmapped land between life and death,
family dissolving,
sure tenderness giving way to the absence left by the living 
when they shed their body
for the next journey.

My courage revealed itself,
whispered in the liturgy of compassion I sweetly sang my children
when I had no other honest thing to give,
huddled in that place of loss that felt so vast,
yet lived only in us.

My courage resides in me,
warm timber that can still be supple
when needed,
that doesn’t prefer rest or labor,
that always says yes,
again and again.