what is BRAVE?

The other day, a woman complimented my bright, shiny blue nail polish. "You're so brave to wear that," she said.

"My mother hates it."

"Well," she replied, "she's wrong."

I never considered wearing bright nail polish, or my odd layered fashion, or any of that BRAVE. It begs a re-evaluation of the question What is Brave? And how are we brave?

That same day, a little girl came to get some hot chocolate with her mother. She spoke very little and seemed shy. Her mother said, "She's painfully shy." I tried to be as nice as I could, and told her about how my best friend was shy when we were little, and I'm NOT, and I'd ask for cookies or anything for her. I consider that little girl BRAVE for coming up and ordering for herself.

How are YOU BRAVE?

Comments

[Kristina]

Two years ago, I dyed my naturally black hair bright, almost pink, red (my 18 month-old niece LOVED it *grin*). I got that comment a lot too (especially at the grocery store, for some reason), the "You're so brave to do that", from total strangers. I felt the same way..."Brave? Why is bleaching my hair and damaging the hell out of it, and then adding Manic Panic Red dye on top 'brave'? Talk to a woman who just left her abusive husband, and then we'll talk about brave."

But, I think what they were really saying was "I really want to do something like that, too, but I'm utterly terrified that someone around me won't like it, and I desperately want them to like me." For them, dyeing their hair really would be a brave act, an act that said "Yes" to themselves first. So, maybe seeing me do it, helped them take a step forward, if only to question what it is they really want. Maybe it was the same for your blue nail polish and that woman...sometimes, we need others to validate that it's ok to do as we will with this life. Even total strangers. :D

[Sharon Bennett]

I will tell you what is brave.....Someone is brave that can get up each day and face any and all challenges that that person's life can throw them. There are folks that have devastating illnesses that still give to others each day, no matter how bad they feel or how much pain they are in. They are never selfish and only think of themselves and their own problems.They make the world beautiful........

[apple]

I totally agree with Kristina's comment.

[Kimbo]

I often don't consider myself brave but then again I think I don't give myself enough credit for my good qualities most of the time either. I guess it is brave to put yourself out there in lots of ways (through art, making positive connections with people whenever possible (even on blog commentss ;-)), trying to be a better person however you can). I think we are all brave to do this in this scary, sometimes mean world we live in. Nail polish color - not bravery. Taking time to connect to a shy little girl, brave !
Take care, brave one.
Kim

[Bad Faery]

Hi Kira, I think that one of the braver things that I have done of late is to embark on my own 'artful adventure'. All through my childhood I loved to draw but I stopped drawing completely around 1995. Then around last September I started to make the effort to draw regularly again and post my efforts online. I'm very self-critical and if you knew me at all you would understand that it is a very big deal for me to be able to pluck up the courage to share my less than stellar drawings. But I figure that if I wait until they are 'perfect' I will never achieve anything. Like Kristina says above, I feel that I am finally saying yes to myself. There are still times that I find it an unnerving process and want to delete everything!But that would be the easy not to mention cowardly route to take.

[amy]

I wear hardly any makeup but i feel brave if I go out in public without anything on (even concealer). So it's sort of the opposite of the nail polish. I like when things like that happen or people say "oh that's really neat I couldn't pull that off." And the thing is that everyone can "pull that off" if they just were to try! P.S. I gave you a Pico award/passed it on from my blog. :)