Today, fear has become one of the dominant forces shaping our world. It is used to capture our attention, to harden our hearts, and to convince us that retreat is the safest option. In such a climate, courage can feel rare.

But courage, like hope and kindness, is a virtue that becomes powerful precisely when the world feels most fragile.

The Shadow of Fear

Much has been said about the chaos of our times – political tension, social fragmentation, wars, economic uncertainty. Fear seeps into our conversations, our news feeds, and even our private thoughts. It whispers the lie that we are too small, too vulnerable, or too powerless to make a difference.

When fear becomes all pervasive, it quietly reshapes us. We become more cautious, more cynical, more withdrawn. We avoid hard conversations. We hesitate to stand up for others. We shrink from the responsibilities that once animated us.

Fear convinces us that survival is enough and we quickly find ourselves feeling apathetic, indifferent, and isolated. 

Yet, a part of us resists the siren song of fear. It may be but a whisper or a hunch, but is there nonetheless. And I believe this is the steady voice of courage gently inviting us towards meaningful action.

Courage as a Steady Flame

In the classic stories we enjoy, we’re drawn to characters who choose courage even when they feel incapable, powerless, or afraid. Their courage is rarely loud or triumphant. More often, it is a trembling step forward when turning back would be easier.

These stories resonate with us because deep down, we know courage isn’t meant only for heroes in other worlds. Courage is meant for ordinary people navigating the challenges of everyday life.

And courage, like hope, often begins small.

It is a faithful flame that grows each time we choose to act in alignment with our values rather than our fears. It grows each time we decide that dignity, compassion, and justice are worth defending.

Courage in Our Daily Lives

When we think of courage, we often imagine grand gestures or heroic feats. But the courage our world most needs right now lives in ordinary acts such as speaking the truth even when your voice quivers, standing in solidarity with the marginalized even when it’s unpopular, or refusing to dehumanize those you disagree with regardless of how strong your emotions may be. 

These small moments are not insignificant. They are the very places where fear is challenged and pushed back. Courage is cultivated not in rare, dramatic decisions, but in the quiet daily choices that slowly reshape who we are.

The Courage to Live as If Change is Possible

Courage, at its core, is the declaration:

Humanity is not finished. We are not powerless. Our actions matter.

This is why courage pairs so naturally with hope and kindness. Hope gives us direction. Kindness grounds us in humanity. Courage compels us to step forward.

The truth is, courage is contagious. When one person acts with courage, others recognize a path forward for themselves. A single act can ripple outward, restoring faith in what is possible.

In this moment of history, we need people willing to practice this quiet, steady courage – people who will resist the lure of fear and choose instead to move toward the good.

Courage does not promise an easy road. But it does promise a meaningful one.

So to conclude, I ask:
What would your life look like if you let courage lead you, even just a little more than fear?

About the Author: Kevin Culver, LPCC, is a professional counselor, published author, and owner of Resilient Kindness Counseling. Kevin has a MA in Mental Health Counseling and a BA in Theological Studies. With a background in spirituality, philosophy, and psychological research, Kevin provides a holistic approach to therapy that seeks to honor each client’s unique personality, worldview, and life aspirations. In his therapeutic work, he helps clients rediscover their humanity and create greater meaning in their lives, work, and relationships. He enjoys working with individuals from all backgrounds, but specializes in working with men’s issues, spirituality, and relationship issues. If you are interested in working with Kevin or learning more about his practice, please visit resilientkindness.com or email him at kevin@resilientkindness.com

What spoke to me the most was the film’s candid representation of what’s-not-working-in-our-world as depicted by the character of Jobu Tupaki/Joy who seems ready to give up caring about anything. She’s emotionally exhausted by her one-sided relationship with her mother, generational patterns of dismissal/gaslighting within her Asian-American family, and feelings of being othered due to her romantic relationship with a mixed race woman. While I can’t say Joy and I share the same experiences or identities, I found myself resonating with her expression of, “I’M TIRED OF CARING ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT’S NOT WORKING RIGHT NOW!”.

When clients come to me for therapy, I often notice a similar pattern. There seems to be an awareness that something is off but not necessarily a comprehension about what that thing is or what to do with that feeling of off-ness. The off-ness seems accompanied by a dynamic coupling of fatigue mixed with a disproportionate desire to fix what’s not working. I witness this desire as a longing to exterminate the spring-giddy ants trailing into the kitchen yet no understanding about where the actual ant colony is located. Clients expect immediate relief from their problems, and they look to me to help them find the spray bottle filled with water and vinegar.

Yet I actually have no say in whether or not my clients will feel relief in their process. All I have is the ability to support my clients in acknowledging that there is spilled milk on the floor, sitting with them while they cry/laugh/yell as the milk balloons in all directions, and collaborating with them on whether they want to use a mop or a paper towel to clean up the mess today (or tomorrow or never). I often return to the taped-off crime scene of the spilled milk with them to examine the stain like a Rorschach test in search of new evidence. And that’s OK. There’s a whole lifetime of experience to process and returning to the same material again and again takes courage. It takes courage to say, “There’s something else for me to learn from this” or “I accept that I’m not over this yet”.

In an interview with Brene Brown on “Unlocking Us”, actress Viola Davis, discusses how her therapist once asked her if she would be OK if nothing about her life or herself changed. I think about that question a lot as a therapist since I am in the profession of believing in a client’s ability to change. If I took away anything from Everything Everywhere All At Once, it is the remembering that I have a choice around how I respond to life even when it all feels like it’s going to shit. In every session, I try to create a space for my clients to make that same choice. Like Carl Rogers says, “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I change.”

Marielle Grenade-Willis is a current counselor with People House and has a MA from University of Colorado – Denver. With a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology and a background in dance, dramatic, and vocal performance, she applies a somatic and systemic approach to the individualized work of counseling. Marielle works from a client-centered, experiential, narrative, and trauma-informed perspective with her individual clients. Prior to People House, she worked extensively in nonprofits focused on animal conservation, food access, and refugee welfare; and has had her poems read and published throughout the Front Range and beyond.

This blog post is an amalgamation of excerpts from a paper I wrote a year and a half ago for an eco-psychology class. We were asked to write about a natural being that we found a connection with: 

Ants are among the social insects (social insects are all of the genera Hymenoptera which also includes wasps, and bees), which have complex societies, social classes and modes of communication. Among the many ant species, ant communities may range in numbers from hundreds of millions to four (Moffett, 2010). But, unlike other insects, ants do not exist outside of their role in the community, they do not wander or forage alone or work for themselves. They have social identities that are completely linked to the survival of the whole. Some have compared the functioning of ants to the individual cells of a human body; each cell having a tiny part in creating life for a larger whole. Insect societies have been dubbed ‘superorganisms’, as the ant colonies themselves function as one huge unified organism (Hölldobler, B., & Wilson, 2009).

Although ant brains are among the largest of all the insects (Moffett, 2010), it is incredulous to us humans that they exist not for themselves, and have individual identities: rather they exist only as part of the whole.

As I contemplated this, I was forced to ponder our own culture.

The entire idea of capitalism is that if we all function for our own best interest society will in turn benefit, which would not make sense in comparison to the ant kingdom. Ants are the archetypal representation of the collective, none working for their own self-interest only in the interest of the colony, and as a result they are wildly successful as a species. Their adaptability and prolific success of ants in the ecosystem is indisputable. It is estimated that there are around 22,000 species of ant and it is estimated that the total biomass of ants greatly outweighs that of all of humanity. Ants exist on all continents and practically every ecosystem, only excluding the polar icecaps (Moffett, 2010). It is no question that they have learned to thrive and as a result of creating highly successful complex societies where the purpose of individuals is to serve the whole.  

Even in my own experience ants are relentless in their pursuits, and can seem like an unstoppable force. I remember one year an ant infestation in our kitchen, as we were only undergrad students at the time we tried various methods to try and stop these endless streams of ants flowing in from spaces in the floorboards. I used packing tape to attempt to block their path and they squished through all the possible holes. We used liquid ant poison, and probably boiling water to no avail.  I have also watched people pour boiling water down ant hills, or turned over logs exposing the inner cavities of the ant hills, and watched as the ants without pause worked to save their colony by picking up larvae or moving it to other places. 

In the words of Owusu (1996), “the ant is tenacious, strong, aggressive, generous, and very meticulous. It’s most pronounced characteristic, however, is patience” (p. 142).  Ants will work ceaselessly towards their goals. Reading this reminds me to direct my energy where I want to go, to have tenacity and patience that my efforts will be fruitful.

It also reminds me that working for the good of community takes time and effort. This is reassuring.

Owusu (2010) further elaborates on the meaning of ant symbolism by explaining:

“The ant teaches you that you will have everything you need and will receive it when you need it most. It is the symbol of basic trust. It knows that it will ultimately be rewarded for all its efforts. If your activities are for the common good, then you will receive back any energy that you have expended. It may be, however, that you will have to put greater effort into the realization of your dreams and use your creativity.” (p. 143)

I also feel that the ants are sending an important message to the larger society to bring our focus back to community. They may be saying that we have taken individualism too far, and it is time to refocus our energies on the collective. Together we can accomplish so much more than we can as individuals. It is up to us to communicate and reprioritize in order to move our societies in the directions that we need to go. This is a very powerful message for our times as we are collectively facing such large problems. But unlike ants, humans can diverge from the collective, this is not a negative aspect it adds to our communities and perhaps we have taken individualism too far and need to reunify as a species.

Although these times in our humanity can seem daunting, and dark, the ants also bring a redemptive message if we listen, have courage and most of all have persistence. Somewhat along the lines of Johanna Macy’s message of the Great Turning,

The ant societies are telling us to get our act together and create something new.

For the Dogon and Bamara peoples of Mali, ants were a symbol of fertility. Ant hills were the sexual organ of the earth, ants a symbol of life and rejuvenation.  The ants are telling us we can our acts together and create a stronger collective reality. They are reminding us to put our own self-interest aside, focus on the larger picture, and prepare for the future.

• Chevalier, J. & Gheerbrant, A. (1996). The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. (J. Buchanan-Brown, Trans.) New York: Penguin Books. (Original work published in France 1969). 
• Hölldobler, B., & Wilson, E. O. (2009). The superorganism: the beauty, elegance, and strangeness of insect societies. New York; WW Norton & Company.
• Moffett, M. W. (2010). Adventures among ants: A global safari with a cast of trillions. Los Angeles, CA; University of California Press.
• Owusu, H. (1999). Symbols of Native North America. New York; Sterling Publishing Group.

Stephanie (she/her/hers) believes that healing results from expanding our capacity for meaningful connections and relationships. She has a background working with a diversity of people in outdoor settings and draws from attachment theory, body-based and experiential therapies, as well as ecological and feminist approaches. Currently pursuing her MA in Counseling at Regis, Stephanie aims to incorporate how familial, social, economic and cultural forces interact in our society to impact individual well-being. Stephanie will be starting her own practice in mid-May. Contact her at: steph@soulterracounseling.com