“Have Courage/Go Gently.”

Two instructions that seem to contradict each other. They don't.

Have Courage — written approximately 2,000 times in red ink against yellow. Urgent. Insistent. The colors of alarm and attention, of something that needs to be heard. Go Gently — written approximately 2,300 times in dark brown ink against sepia. Warm, worn, ancient. The colors of old letters, old wisdom, the kind of knowledge that has been earned over a very long time.

Woven together on the page, interleaved and inseparable, they form a single instruction that neither phrase could deliver alone. Because courage without gentleness becomes brutality. And gentleness without courage becomes surrender. It is only in the weaving — in holding both at once — that something true emerges.

The gentleness slightly outweighs the courage. Three hundred repetitions more. Whether that was intentional or not, it feels right.

"Have Courage/Go Gently" - 2025-2026 - Hand-written and woven. Ink on paper. Yellow and red words - "Have Courage" Brown with dark brown words "Go Gently" (work in progress)