Gentle Warriors

Gentleness is not synonymous with weakness; rather, it is a form of strength. (8-minute read)

It sounds like a contradiction of terms, doesn't it? Gentle. Warrior. Intuitively we just don't put those two things together in our mind. Maybe we should. I have had the honor of working with and forming friendships with several true warriors in my lifetime. If there is one thing that I have learned from that experience it is that most people don’t understand what it really means to be one. Let’s explore that today and see if gentle and warrior might be more compatible than we imagine.  

There is a very old saying about the people that are found on the battlefield during a war that is most often credited to the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. It goes like this:

“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.” — Heraclitus of Ephesus, 540 B.C.

History credits the ancient Greek philosophers as …