Friday, May 3, 2013

Brave

Linking up with Lisa-Jo at Five Minute Friday. Today's word prompt is brave.



I don't think of myself as a brave person. Oh, I'm no coward. I just prefer to take the path I'm fairly confident about versus jumping courageously into the unknown. Calculated risk is how I prefer to think of it. (The primary exception to that would be becoming stepmom to three children while they were in/around the crazy middle school years. I don't know if I'd call that brave or not, but God has been faithful in writing that story despite my overestimated confidence!)

It's much easier for me to think of bravery in the lives of those around me. Like the young woman whose first plane ride will be a 20-hour trip to Africa on a missions trip this summer. Or the sister-friend staring down an initial cancer diagnosis and then courageously fighting recurrence and bravely surrendering her life repeatedly to God each step of the way.

And my mom. Like me, I'm not sure you characterize my mom as being brave, but I think she is. She was primarily a stay-at-home mom for our growing-up years and when I went to college, she decided to go back to pursue a nursing degree. She had only one or two college classes completed and those were from decades earlier. At the local community college, she found herself in the same classrooms as the classmates I graduated with, young people she had overseen through the years when she would serve as a substitute teacher. Earning a nursing degree is not for the faint of heart and it takes bravery, courage and determination to start down that path when you're 48 years old.

I also think my mom is brave because she left her life in another state and moved to a retirement community in the state where one of my brothers and I live. She didn't need to move - she's very active and in excellent health, but she made the move so that if something did happen, she'd be closer to family and she'd be the one making the choice of where to live, saving my brothers and I the need to make that decision on her behalf. She wanted to become part of a new community while she could still be active, make new friends and enjoy new discoveries. It took a number of years and multiple visits to various retirement communities, but when she was ready, she sold her house, left her work, her friends and her quilting group, and made the move.

I call that brave - to leave the life you know to reestablish yourself in a new community in your early 70s. I also call it brave because she made the choice not to "age in place" but to make proactive choices about her future while she was fully capable of making them. She saw it as an opportunity, not as a threat to her independence and well-being, something I know is a struggle for many (and admittedly, may be a struggle for me when that day comes!). And her bravery has resulted in a thriving, active life. I don't know that I've ever seen her as happy as she is.

So here's to my mom and to all the brave women in my life. Women who are brave and faithful in the small, everyday things, and women who are brave and obedient enough to take a leap into the great unknown!

2 comments:

  1. Enjoyed this, bless your dear mom.

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  2. I think it's easy for us to see bravery in those around us, but not in our own lives. Parenting in the middle years requires a certain amount of bravery...you are brave too.

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