This little guy is a yellow warbler caught at a banding station I run in northwestern Pennsylvania. Although just weighing about 9 grams, he was a feisty little bird, full of life and spunk. Even young yellow warblers display fierce tenacity. Still, the reality is that the future of young birds is highly uncertain. For many species of songbirds, only 20-30% of the birds born in any given year survive to the next one. Not only do newly hatched birds have to make it through the first few weeks out of the nest, barely able to fly and not fully able to find food on their own, but they must then endure the arduous task of migrating thousands of miles to a destination they have not yet seen through a maze of obstacles they may or may not be prepared to tackle. It is a difficult world out there and being a bird isn’t easy. In the face of these hurdles, I can only imagine birds have what we might call courage. 

For both birds and beasts nobody is exempt from the unknown. If you think about it long enough, uncertainty surrounds us. There are very few absolutes in life and the increasingly complex world we live in doesn’t help make things any easier. While always around us, there are times when we feel more aware of the ambiguity in our lives. It is in these moments that the tool we need the most is courage. Like the small and nearly defenseless yellow warbler making that first trek across the Atlantic ocean for safe winter haven, uncertainty calls us to summon that brave voice within that says “you can make it – it will be OK”. 

Courage, I think, is different than confidence. Although confidence isn’t a bad thing, you don’t have to feel confident in order to demonstrate courage. You just have to be able to look uncertainty in the face and say “I see you, and although you may scare me, I’m going to move forward anyway.” When I first pulled the little warbler pictured above out of the mist net he was certainly scared and unsure. But – he fluttered, and fought, and scolded me with chirps anyway. 

Courage is the ability to do something in the face of uncertainty that you believe to be right, or good, or true. Paulo Coelho has reflected that “when we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change: at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait.” 

A yellow warbler waiting for an entirely certain migration route would never fly. Similarly, I find that I can’t sit around and wait for full certainty in my life either. Sometimes you have to acknowledge and accept the uncertainly around you, and decide to fly anyway.