Courage

“Happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you have the courage to release.” Nathaniel Hawthorne

What needs to be released, the piano, the sewing machine or the fish from your latest ocean adventure.  Or is it the courage to release your fondest possessions?

Courage today is to write this blog to write about quotations that require me to think and to share that thinking.

As this quotation by Nathaniel Hawthorne permeates my mind, I think about what he had to release to write.  Yes, his wife was awesome. Sophia coached, mentored and supported her husband in his work writing the Scarlet Letter and other works. But, he still needed the courage to release his ego after having been fired from the Boston Custom House. What else did he need his courage for?

What do the words “In what you have” mean to you?   In addition to our physical possessions, what are we carrying with us what needs to be released?