Bravery

So, I once defined beauty, and I decided to take a crack at defining bravery. When most people think of bravery as a knight in shining armor riding his white horse into battle (or nowadays, I soldier in camo driving a tank into battle), and while yes that takes incredible amounts of bravery I think that there are many different forms of being brave. So here are a few examples of my definition of bravery.

Admitting you need help is very brave. Admitting you have a problem is brave. Even braver is seeking the help and trying your hardest to help yourself. There are so many people who cowardly hide their pain and issues inside, when really they should just let someone know and let themselves free of being trapped inside themselves with their issues.

Being yourself is powerfully brave. Not allowing others to sway you in their judgments of you and their opinions of who you are is brave. Those who truly love you appreciate you for who you are and for who you aren't and encourage you gently toward who you are to become, they don't judge you or hate on you for being who you are now and moving toward who you are becoming.

Feeling good about yourself is brave. In American culture if you don't hate yourself or at least some part of yourself there is supposedly something wrong with you, you're self-centered and prideful and conceited and a bad person. When that isn't true. It's brave to feel good about yourself and accept the things you hate about yourself and to love yourself or at least pieces of yourself.

Living take courage. Taking breaths, waking up every morning, getting out of bed, getting dressed, going to work, taking care of yourself and loved ones, it all takes bravery and courage. Sometimes more than others. How much easier would it be to just let yourself slip away into the Lord's comfort? So much, but living and doing your best at it takes true courage.

Doing your best is brave. It's simple and spineless to stop trying to give up and sit by the side of your life's path. It's brave to stand up and keep walking when you no longer have strength. It's brave to drag yourself along when your legs give out. It's brave to lift up your hand to the person whose path will correspond with yours just when you need them. (Just as God intended it.) It's brave to look down the road and know that someday you will get to that point because you will "keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things," as Walt Disney put it.

Helping others is brave. Giving someone your hand, your shoulder to cry on, your arms to hold them, your eyes to cry with them, your heart to ache with them is courageous. Telling them your experiences to help them is brave.

Trying new things is brave. You don't know what that exotic piece of fruit or mysterious piece of meat is going to taste like, so putting it in your mouth is brave. But trying a new job or school or town or neighborhood or idea or blog or challenge is brave. You don't know how it will affect you and your life, and facing that unknown is brave. Very brave.

Trust is brave. Not stuff like trust-falls, and other stuff you see coworkers doing on TV shows and commercials. True trust is hard and sometimes painful and so brave. Leaning on someone else and telling them your secrets and hopes and fears and dreams is brave and sometimes so hard.

Love is heroic. Giving someone part of your heart and hoping, praying, and trusting they won't shatter it or leave it out in the rain to catch cold or simply hand it back is incredibly brave. It's brave to keep loving someone after you've hurt them, or after they've hurt you. Even though you've given those people a piece of you, you can still feel that piece they're holding on to. It's easy and cowardly to just walk away and take your heart back from someone you love, it's brave to put yourself on the line again and keep loving them and give them another chance. (Disclaimer: Sometimes giving someone another chance is just stupid, not brave. You have to be the judge of that for yourself, here's for hoping you aren't stupid! Hehe!)

This is a suit of armor in Disneyland, he's pretty brave to just stand there. Hehe!

It just sounded like fun to put in a picture of him :)

That's my Mom! She's struggled through most of her life and you would never know it. Her strength and bravery is quiet and peaceful. Her courage is lost to words. Her experiences are inexplicable. Her strength is unfathomable. She's a beautiful, brave, wonderful woman.

This is Rae's Phill. He's been deployed twice, leaving his wife and children behind to go off to the horrors of war, not knowing whether or not he would come back to them. Not only that he's picked up his family and moved to a new place about every 3 years. Including in August, when they'll move to Texas.

This is Phill's Rae. She's gone through everything with him, always by his side, always supporting him. Not only that she's courageously raised 3 children, while go through personal struggles. Rae's gone through an inexplicable amount of challenges, that I've only begun to fathom, and bravely borne them and struggled through them, trying so hard to move forward past them. While trying to drag herself down her path of life, she's picked up others along the way, forgetting her own struggles and helping those she's found in their challenges. Rae has handled her challenges with equal helpings of bravery, beauty and sweetness. Which is truly admirable.

This is my Kavyn. You all know that I love her and she's my best friend. What you may not know is that she has placed her already rocky path of life right next to my broken and often hidden one, and not only does she leave her path to let me cry on her shoulders, and to comfort me as I try to be brave (often failing), but she picks me up and carries me as far as she can. Something else you don't know is that she feels lucky to do so and asks for nothing in return. Completely selflessly she listens to me whine and watches me try and trip and often fail, and just tells me that she loves me too and to keep going because I'm stronger and braver than I give myself credit for. She is so brave to love me. And so brave to keep going and living and fighting the fight she's been handed. She's not got it easy, but she handles it at her very best which is all anyone can ask. This girl's a special one, so watch out world, she's going to change you. Even if it's only one person at a time.

Beauty

There are so many different forms and shapes and definitions of beauty and I've been contemplated on my version of the term tonight. What is beauty? Is it the faces of those you love? Is it words strung together in just the right order? Is it a landscape? Is beauty a piece of music that fills your soul? Is it a photograph? Is it a feeling? Is it a secret piece of cake in the pantry and no one finds you? Is it a meaningful film? Maybe one of those made you nod, and made everyone else in the room shake their head over how involved you were in the internet, maybe not. Well, here's my definition of beauty, at least for now:

Beauty is these people I love, their faces lighting up when they see me. Their eyes. Their smiles. Their jokes. Their laughter. Their tears. Their comfort. Their comfort is the most beautiful to me.

Beauty is these few different sets of words that brilliant people have strung together:

I love you. -Anon. (Eve probably, or Adam, if he was a smart husband)--These words bring a smile to my lips and tears to my eyes. So simple and so true, the beauty of these three words is incomparable.

I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, every day we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours. And, my darling, you will always be mine. -The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks--This makes me cry every time. It's toward the end of the book when you find out the little old man is Noah. He writes Ally this letter before her memory goes. If I were writing my own vows, I would say this to my husband-to-be.

Okay, I know I know more, but those are the only two I can think of at the moment.

Beauty is Kevin Jonas. I think that he is gorgeous. I cannot imagine a man more beautiful.

(That's my favorite picture of him. It's beautiful)

(Savvy is even trained to say I'm going to marry him. I am very proud of her for that.)

These are a few films I think are beautiful:

Finding Neverland (Kate Winslet, Johnny Depp)

Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart)

Phantom of the Opera (Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson)

Sense and Sensibility (Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson)

Beaches (Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey)

Beauty is tree blossoms. Tender and coming to life, from apparently nothing. Springing forth from the cold, dark, long winter they bring hope and life and color to the world. To the lives of everyone blessed enough to see them. The spring hasn't fully come to with the blossoms, but it soon will. It brings the promise of better times to come, the promise of renewal and life. Also the blossoms also bring the knowledge that--finally--the worst is over, and you can move on and grow again. (These photos I took)

(for Savvy, pink "paw-corn" trees are her favorite)

Beauty is tragedy. That sounds depressing, but truly I believe tragedy is beautiful. Tear-stained cheeks are washed clean. Tears bring soothing and peace afterward, and--for me--sleep. Pain is for the heart like pruning is for plants. It may hurt, and it may seem like it's shrinking you, but afterward it helps you to grow and to blossom and bear fruit. Grief brings clarity to the joyful moments in life. Trials bring peace afterward. Calamity brings strength. Heartbreak brings vision and wisdom. I'm experiencing all this myself. It hurts, but it's helping me be a better person, friend, daughter, and sister.

Beauty is everywhere, and I'm finding it, enjoying it, crying tears over it's painfully perfect moments, letting it envelope me, and hoping and praying I'm emanating it's light.