I have been thinking a lot about courage lately. The big kind and the little kind. Examples for the little kind would be eating strawberries and honey dew melon for breakfast instead of waffles and bacon. Yesterday when little honey bunny had the stomach flu and made it to the toilet instead of the floor. Going to the gym at 7:00 AM on Sunday to run sprints instead of sleeping in. Big kind to me is calling the doctor to make an appointment for a mammogram when you haven't gone in years. Running a marathon. Training for a marathon. Getting back on Facebook after a year of being off of it due to some rather awkward estrangements with friends or family. Not only putting on 80's music but telling the world you have it on your Pandora. Seriously, some may joke but I swear that takes courage.
Think about that...how many times a day do we all feel bad about ourselves and feel a little ashamed about our little "indulgences" if you will. When I sit down to write or think or plan, I like to do the following - make a pot of tea, clean my kitchen, fold my blankets and fluff the pillows on my sofa and clean up my writing area. Then I like to light a candle (metaphorical to me - lights a flame of creativity and opens the pathway to my thinking brain), drink some of the tea, face my laptop so that I can look outside (no matter the weather) and I put on some 80's music. There is something extremely therapeutic to me when I hear Spandeau Ballet or Culture Club or A-Ha. It takes me back to a time when I remember feeling good about myself yet a little insecure. When I was a teenager struggling to become an adult. You know that time - before you were say, jaded. When the world was wide open and ripe with possibility. When I thought that I would either move to New York and become a Broadway star and live in Greenwich Village, or the other way and thrive in Hollywood and live in the canyons and be one of those freaky cool actresses. Or even better, I would sing. And act. And probably dance. And then I would write about it.
I look at Facebook posts, ones which I make also and see sometimes personal attacks on what you say. As if you are the dumbest person in the world. Then I see sometimes people just wanting to show you how smart they are with their rhetoric. Really? I can't decide if Facebook is evil or genius. I admit I use it everyday for my business and as a stay at home Mom and coach that works from home - I like to keep in touch with certain people. The one thing that I see everyday on Facebook though is courage. And cowardice. I see people post things about their religion, their politics, their weight loss, their running, their job situations, their marriages, their children, their eating habits and other such very personal things. Then I see some people attacked for these things. It is no wonder many people don't put themselves out there. I figure that if I am friends with you - and I don't mean facebook friends but a real friend then I would find those things that make you who are kind of endearing and quirky and sweet. Maybe not but at the very least I would really like to think that I would applaud you for having the courage to be who you are. That's what I want. So as I finish this post, I am currently listening to Bryan Adams's song "Heaven". And I am singing along because I know all the words.
