Courage

[Guest guest]

COURAGE

 

Said the youth to the Sage: "0 Father, I cannot pass over that black chasm by

this slender bridge! I shall fall in. I have not the strength to endure to the

other side. I have scarce the strength to begin, heavily burdened as I am."

 

"Not your burden, but the weakness of your fear, is the weight," said the Sage.

"You can not pass over thus weighted down. This burden drop, and cross lightly

to the other side."

 

But the youth’s trembling held him fast to the brink of the abyss.

 

The Sage seeing, said: "Take the first step." The youth obeyed. And being on the

swinging bridge, balancing the burden, he dared not turn about nor even look

back, but went easily, swiftly over. When he was on the other side the Sage was

there also. Filled with the glory of accomplishment, the youth cried, "I did it!

I did it!" Then remembering that he had left the Sage behind, he looked

wonderingly at him in enquiry. "You came with me, Father?"

 

"Yes, I came with you all the way," said the Sage. "But, if you had faltered in

doubt and fear on the brink, I could have done nothing. In taking the first

step you let go the weight of fear, and the courage you assumed was augmented

to carry you over."

 

"How simple it is, Father," said the youth, joyously. "I know I had not enough

courage at the start to carry me over."

 

"You had enough to start, and by using it, you opened the door for all courage.

Thus mine became yours also."

 

The youth looked at the Sage in the radiancy of gratitude, and then, as his gaze

traveled back over the dark abyss, the light of his eye seemed to form one more

thread in the golden strands of courage now spanning it - for other heroic

souls to come.

 

 

(selection from the book The Eternal Verities)