TRUE COURAGE

Courage is rarely reckless or foolish . . . courage usually involves a highly realistic estimate of the odds that must be faced. - - - - margaret truman

How many courageous people do we know?  More then we think I would say.

 People that we don't realize are courageous are. For example let's look at a woman that open up a large warehouse at four thirty in the morning. She has  to park her car in the small parking lot behind the
building and then walk around to the front of the building to open the door.

At 4:30 it is so dark you can hardly make out where you are walking and only by doing it so many times before do you know where you are. Your heart starts to race as you reach the end of the building and have to turn the corner. What lurks ahead is what runs through your mind as you are about to turn, is there a dog ready to growl at you, or worse a person ready to pounce? Turning the corner your eyes dart every which way and your increase your walking speed.  Aah, you feel relief  because so far there is nothing out of the ordinary. Hurrying along it seems like forever to reach the door. Key in hand you unlock the showroom door, relocking it as soon as you are inside.  A small walk to the light switch is courageous because you don't know who or what could be lurking behind the wall the light switch is attached to. Switching on the light  for that area is such a relief.  Once that is done you feel somewhat safer even though the rest of the large warehouse is as black as a black cat in the night.
The light dims as you continue to walk toward the office, your heart beating a mile a minute, your hands clutched to your sides while your eyes are looking everywhere. Opening the door of the office you turn on
the light switch and breathe a sigh of relief. You made it, sure the whole warehouse is shrouded in darkness but you don't have to walk back there.

You feel somewhat safe here. This is your comfort zone - you turn on the light in the outer office and listen to the messages, writing down the orders and then entering them in the computer. Walking back into the inner office you turn on thte printers, computers and check the fax machine. The rest of the time flys because of the work that has to be done before the truck drivers come in to fill the orders that I am entering and printing, But always your senses are on alert for any unusual sounds that come from the back where it should be
quiet.

Key word- should be. except for the one time a mouse was trapped in the garbage can and couldn't get
out.  The sound came from right outside the office door and was making me very uneasy because I had checked out there a couple of times and could not see anything. I thought my imagination was playing
tricks on me until I heard this thump - my heart jumped in my throat as I opened the door with flashlight in hand,  Shinning it all around I walked over to the trash can and looking inside saw the mouse trying it's
darndest to get out. I was so relieved and left him in there after putting the lid on waiting till Leonard
came to dispose of it in whatever way he felt fit - -  -

When everyone came into work that morning they were unaware of how courageous I was entering
the building at that time.