Brave New World

In Search of Spring

Happy Spring Equinox! The Robe Valley is celebrating with heavy rain. The snow is melting fast and the river is thundering. I love watching the daily changes out here. Though some think it would be boring to live in the middle of nowhere, with no TV reception, I'm never bored. There is always something new to see and discover.

In reconnecting with old friends and telling them my life's stories (especially about stitching up my own thumb yesterday), I've heard the word brave bandied about (again). One friend wrote, "You are real and alive and feeling and strong and brave and an evolved person and your writing shows that. It resonates with me in so many ways and it challenges me to dig deeper and go further into my thoughts and feelings." It goes without saying that I'm honored and touched by such sentiment, since in the words of a lovely song from RENT, "My only goal is just to be."

As I walked in the rain this morning, smiling at the little green things striving toward life in the melting snow, I pondered the word bravery.

Dictionary.com defines it as so:
bravery
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: boldness

The Merriam-webster.com thesaurus gives these synonyms:
Courage, Mettle, Spirit, Resolution, Tenacity meaning mental or moral strength to resist opposition, danger, or hardship. : courage implies firmness of mind and will in the face of danger or extreme difficulty; mettle suggests an ingrained capacity for meeting strain or difficulty with fortitude and resilience; spirit also suggests a quality of temperament enabling one to hold one's own or keep up one's morale when opposed or threatened; resolution stresses firm determination to achieve one's ends; tenacity adds to resolution implications of stubborn persistence and unwillingness to admit defeat.

In light of the above definition and synonyms, I probably am brave, though I never feel I am... at least no more so than the green bits stretching toward the sky in attempt at survival. They don't know why they do it; they don't know how they do it; they have no clue what's coming next; they go purely on impulse and instinct. Me too. My perceived bravery is only me stretching and reaching, fighting for existence in the moment (caring little about what the future might or might not hold), and striving "just to be." We all have that in us... we want to grow and blossom and make the world a better place.

“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”
~Ghandi