BRAVE

Over the weekend I sent my boys off to their friends’ house less than a block away, on their bikes.  I watched as they made it to the end of our street and turned the corner, out of my sight.

My oldest was  thrilled to go off on his own, to his friends’ house alone.  He is brave like that.

But my younger son, although excited as well, was somewhat anxious too.  Before he made it to the corner he came back to me three times, unsure of this or that and then requesting his jacket at the third time. “I just want to be warm, Mom”, he said.  He finally went and was brave too.  But I could totally relate to his hesitation.  Sometimes that first step (or pedal) is the hardest.

And I was brave too, in a way, to let them go.  It is not far at all, they did not even go near a busy street and my friend (their friends’ mom) sent me a text right away to let me know they had arrived safely.

But still, sometimes it is hard to let them go, where you cannot see or hear or tell.

 

 

Later that evening we headed to the Dairy Queen 20 minutes away to enjoy some delicious ice cream as a family.  During the drive we had time to talk about dreams for this year and listen to music.  As we were about to arrive at the small town ice cream eatery a song came on the radio that perked up both Tim’s ears and mine.  We had never heard it before but we liked it right away.  I tried to find it on iTunes but everyone was ready to bail out of the van and into the restaurant to get their treat and I put my phone away (working on that in the new year…)

The next morning Tim thought of the song again and asked me to find it as we were driving to church.

The song is called “Brave” and it is sung by Sara Bareilles.  This video made me laugh through tears and I simply cannot stop watching it.  I want to be friends with everyone in it. 🙂

 

 

The words struck something inside of me, especially these:

“Everybody’s been there,
Everybody’s been stared down by the enemy
Fallen for the fear
And done some disappearing,
Bow down to the mighty
Don’t run, just stop holding your tongue
Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is”

 

I want to discover how big MY brave is.

I want to let go of old demons and say what I want to say and MEAN it.

I want to do good for others and and stand up for them.

I want to put myself out there like I never have before.

I want to feel Brave.

 

I have very little idea how I am going to do this yet.  But I do feel like this is a call, so to speak, and a time for me to be more brave than I have ever been in my life.

So I guess this is my word for the year, if I chose to choose one, yes, this would be it.

 

Are you brave? If so, how? 

I wanna see you be Brave.

😀

 

p.s. Old School Blogging is up again this week!  Join us for a 2013 Recap link up!