First, there’s this: https://goo.gl/FFbRnJ

My daughter and her heifer, Skittles. This is why I love fair week, because you get to see these kinds of pictures found. It shows that while the 4-Her and her heifer can be bull-headed, a trouble maker, and sometime down right rude, there’s an emotion there can cannot be described, but certainly known it when you see it. We have a half dozen of these “cuddle” pictures and they warm my heart every time I see one. These pictures give me hope that things around us will work out just fine.

Now, courage. I’ve seen courage show itself many different ways over the last few weeks. I’ve seen it at our conference swim meet.  We were watching one of the races where a boy was clearly struggling. He went from one side of the lane to the other, then grabbed the end of the lane, and turned around to finish his race when he stopped, pulled his goggles, and coughed. Hard. He moaned as if in pain, and his coaches were ready to go get him. Everyone one was quiet and all eyes were on him. He could have very easily, “I’m done.”  But a strange thing happened. He put on his goggles, and finished the race!

#courage

I’ve seen it with my daughter, who spent most of the season swimming with the boys relay team. She did this a little bit last year, but was a full time “boy” and with the boys, won several first place ribbons. The boys loved that “Fred” was swimming with them, and all four of them had a blast. When asked if she wanted to move, she said, “Nope, I’m having too much fun!” The boys relay team scored a third and fourth place finish at conference, and our daughter got to get up on the podium and receive a medal. How cool is that? I took guts to keep it going with the boys, and I’m proud of her and her effort!

#courage

I’ve seen it with my wife, who has a new job, teaching pre-school in a local school district. She’s been with the educational development specialist in Head Start for the past six years and in Head Start as a co-teacher and lead teacher for twelve years  (which is tough for me to believe). She wanted to make a change. Talk about courage?!?! I’m so proud of her!

#courage

I’ve seen with my oldest daughter. Between swimming on the high school team for four years, moving first to Iowa State, then to Cedar Rapids, our oldest daughter has grown so much in the courage she’s demonstrated on a daily basis. She’s the youngest co-op participant in her group, and she’s learning skills that will make finding a “real job” something that will happen with ease. She’s coming out of her shell at work, and that takes real guts as a 19 year old.

#courage

Courage doesn’t mean you’ve succeeded in what you’d done. Courage means that you are like about mentioned boy, and you keep swimming the race because it’s what you do. It means you step outside your comfort zone in your new job, that you push yourself swimming and singing, or that you keep learning about how to deal with a health issue. Courage isn’t always a shiny badge. Sometimes times it’s dirty and grimy and in the end, it’s what takes a plain life and makes it a life extraordinary!

#courage

I only hope that I can show this kind of courage. Thanks to all of you for inspiring me to be a better husband, dad, and person.