The Form of Godliness · the attribute of God
Courageous
Dover Castle
The key to England, and the closest point to the enemy — courage is a location.
The attribute of God
Courageous
The way it moves
Endeavor
The estate it increases
Occasion
The geography lesson
It stands on the white chalk cliffs above the Strait of Dover, 33 kilometres from France, the narrowest crossing of the English Channel. The tunnels beneath it directed the Dunkirk evacuation.
- Where
- Dover, Kent, United Kingdom
- Continent
- Europe
- Built
- 1180s great tower by Henry II
- Style
- the 'Key to England' — medieval keep over wartime tunnels
- Coordinates
- 51.1295°, 1.3213°
The real castle · photographs
Dover Castle as it actually stands in Dover, Kent — photographs from Wikimedia Commons. Look long enough at the stone, the roofline and the land it was set on to know why this kingdom reads as courageous.
The mirror reading · Courageous
One word, two kingdoms. On the earth side courageous is a stone she carries and studies — geology, substance, the thing in her hand. Behind the Door the same word is a castle standing somewhere real — geography, dominion, the place she lives from.
Earth · The Adventure CEO
Carnelian
The warrior's stone — red-orange nerve, worn by those who had to go first.
The stone of Courageous →Heaven · The Form of Godliness
Dover Castle
The key to England, and the closest point to the enemy — courage is a location.
Dover, Kent, United Kingdom
What you build in your castle
Dover Castle is four works, and so is yours: a moat that decides what may cross, walls that hold what has been gathered, furnishings that make the inside livable, and beauty that makes it worth defending. Keeping courageous — here behind the Door and on the earth side in the planner — raises all four.
What may cross
Moat
You dig the moat by learning what courageous lets in and what it does not. At this degree the water is shallow — it is a line drawn, a first no. Anything that cannot cross courageous waits outside the gate.
What is held
Walls
Every time you do endeavor on purpose you set a stone. The walls of Dover Castle were raised the same way — one course a season, by hands that did not see the finish. Height is only repetition that kept its line.
What makes it livable
Furnishings
A bare keep is survived, not lived in. The first furnishings are small and daily: the page written, the table laid, the hour kept. Endeavor is what carries furniture through the gate.
What makes it worth defending
Beauty
Dover Castle is beautiful on purpose. the 'Key to England' — medieval keep over wartime tunnels was chosen, carved and paid for by people who knew that beauty is what makes a place worth defending. Your first beauty is simply doing courageous gracefully rather than grimly.
Read in heaven · The Form of Godliness
Courage is standing where it is nearest. To endeavour is to try in the direction of the risk. Occasion — the moment — only ever belongs to those already at the cliff.
“Prove me now herewith, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing.”
Malachi 3:10
Build your castle today
Do the nearest frightening thing first today.
The other castles of Day 20 · The Law of the Prowess