brave

Today is Veteran's Day, 11-11-11.  A day to honor courage and honor the honorable.

It's important to be brave.  I tell this to my children.  I tell this to myself.  Am I brave?  I don't know.  In the times of my life I have had to face adversity, I hope I have done it with courage.

A couple of days ago I confronted someone who was mistreating my family.  That took courage.

Then today in the dentist's office I read an article about Jackie Kennedy.  Puts life into perspective.  Talk about brave.
 
Tonight I am thinking about my friend who has a daughter with special needs who has been struggling.  I went to visit them this summer.  I was having a hard day and she invited me into her home and fed me cheese and crackers and gave me some tea.  She was so loving.  She has this beautiful, cheerful old home with a mudroom that you enter through.  She told me of her dream to have the mudroom one day converted into a studio for her, as she is a writer.  But right now the money is going to other things, like braces, and doctor bills, and that studio feels like an unachievable dream.  Right now she is taking care of her family and making soup and driving the kids places and holding her daughter while she has seizures and worried and trying to be spiritual and trust in the universe and be BRAVE.

Tonight my thoughts also go a good friend I know who suffers quite silently.  
    
Maybe being brave means having hope and faith, even when things feel hopeless.  Never giving up.  Maybe that's what it means to be brave.   

To all of the people who face adversity with courage, hope, optimism, and strength.  Especially you, E.  And all the people who fought in battles to defend their fellow citizens from harm.  My dad, who as a young man joined the U.S. Marines.  I bow down to your bravery.