How Real Life Redefines Bravery
by @BethVogt
“Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.” ~Brené Brown, American research professor
Can I just be honest and say life went off the rails last week?
The past seven days have been all about trying to find some sense of calmness in the midst of recovering from crisis, all the while juggling real life and writing life.
This blog post doesn’t feel like an act of bravery, but it is me showing up. And as author Brené Brown says in the quote accompanying this post, showing up is important.
We’re all familiar with emergencies — those times when circumstances erupt and destroy all sense of normalcy, leaving us off-kilter and searching for a way out … a way back to all the good we had just a few seconds before our sense of control shattered.
And yes, I could share the particulars of my crisis last week, but the what and whys and hows aren’t important. We all have had times when our lives turned upside down and inside out and left us breathless.
The question becomes: what do we do?
Oh, there’s plenty to do in the midst of the immediate need. Calls to make. People to take care of. Prayers to pray. And repeat, repeat, repeat.
But what do we do when the crisis is past? When there’s no more adrenalin surging through our bodies, powering our actions. When decisions have been made, consequences are falling into place . . . and life is an odd elixir of normal and what’s-to-come.
That’s when we discover being brave is about just showing up.
I don’t know about you, but emergencies exhaust me. I’m one of those “okay, I got through the crisis, but now that it’s over, let me crawl into bed and sleep forever” kind of people.
But that’s not reality.
There’s no pause button on life. No way to say, “Hold on, I’m dealing with a crisis here. Stop everything else for a minute while I handle this catastrophe. We’ll get back to our regularly scheduled lives in a minute.”
There’s the brave that’s demanded of you when you’re surrounded by trouble. And then there’s the brave that’s demanded of you when you have to carry on in the face of living life after a disaster.
You’re still tired. You’re still hurting. You’re still asking questions. You’re still not sure how this happened — or how it’s really going to end. But life is going on. Some things are the same, and some things … some people … are forever changed.
And we … we choose to be brave and just show up and be there. To live our lives. One day at a time.
For me, showing up looks like writing a blog post.
For you, showing up may look like getting dressed for work and giving a presentation, even if you don’t feel completely prepared. Or dealing with a fussy baby. Or staring down a deadline and a word count.
Today, let’s be brave and just show up.
How Real Life Redefines Bravery http://bit.ly/2IbJPim #perseverance #encouragement
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'Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.' #quote by @BreneBrown http://bit.ly/2IbJPim #bebrave
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