Bravery

Bravery comes in many stages and we are often judged by how others perceive our bravery or lack of it. Opportunities for being brave confront us daily. Many scenarios come into play throughout our day causing us to question our sense of bravery or face up to it. Start with your morning call, whether it's coming from a clock, a phone or your significant other shaking you into wakefulness. It takes bravery to begin a new day and face whatever it may bring.

Bravery is the mundane task of driving to work or braving public transportation to get there. Think about it. You are brave entering stairs into the world under city streets to get into a shiny cylinder jam packed with humanoids to spend the day in a cubicle where you probably won't see sunlight until  the summer solstice comes around again. Driving makes even the most timid of personalities morph into a dare devil of a person who takes chances peering around blind spots and praying to god almighty that someone else doesn't come barreling into you or cuts you off. 

Opportunity for bravery can crop up when it's least expected such as taking the first painful step after surgery. More times than none are patients scared of taking that first step out of bed. Afraid of pain, afraid of popping stitches, afraid to breathe, afraid of going back to not being well again.

Bravery steps up when they realize that the first step wasn't as bad as they thought, the stitches are still tight, breathing actually helped with moving, they were going to get better and there is only of slight chance of them going back to where they were.

It takes bravery to be the first to break a silence, to write an inquiry letter to an agent or a publisher.
It takes bravery to be the one to approach the person who holds your heart.
It takes bravery to be the one to go against society and claim your beloved.
It takes bravery to be the one to let go of your first love.
It takes bravery to let your child walk into his Kindergarten class all by his lonesome self.
It takes bravery to sit down your family and tell the worse news they could ever expect to hear.
It takes bravery to know when to cut off the parasitic people in your life,

Bravery steps up when our hearts, bodies and mind reaches for it.
Go ahead, be brave.
The pain will diminish, the stitches will hold, you will get better.

Breathe