Bravery

                                  

The truth is, life will amaze you in the most stunning ways, and it will also break 

your heart. Life will gift you the kinds of lessons that grow you and build you and

help for you to bloom into the person you have always hoped to be, but it will also

carry within it the kinds of losses that stay with you, that change you and mold

you in uncomfortable ways. Life will demand for you to do the work, for you to understand 

yourself, for you to heal even when it hurts. For you to be brave, for you to fight

for yourself.

At the end of the day, bravery isn't a battlefield. It isn't fast cars, or stunned risk.

Bravery is the quietest thing you will ever know. Bravery is getting up in the morning 

when your bones are heavy and heart does not want the light to crack within it. Bravery

is leaning into what aches, it is looking it in the face, giving it a name and

confronting it for what it is. Bravery is being gentle with yourself, especially when

it isn't convenient or easy, especially when you are not a shining example of the 

person you strive to be. Bravery is forgiving yourself, it is the work you do within

your soul that is dirty and difficult and demanding.

But most of all, bravery is the way you stretch towards the light. It is the way you bloom

in the direction of goodness, even when you may not know what you are reaching for. Bravery

is allowing yourself to believe that you are growing, even when you do not recognize

the path. Bravery is knowing that there is more for you, that you will have the ability to 

save yourself like you always have before; that you will service.