#valliant

New year, new single.

Hope Danielle Meek, 25

Earlier this year I was part of a conversation in which friends were catching up, talking about their kids a little. They were talking about how one of their kids was a, shall we say, adventurous human being on top of being a high schooler. This young human being was in the habit of acting in cleverly enterprising ways one might think of as brave.

Brave?

Yeah. Because they didn’t care about consequences.

At which point another friend of mine chimed in with

“That’s not bravery, then.”

What?

“Because in order to be brave,” they continued, “you have to be afraid first.”

In order to be brave...

You have to be afraid.

It’s another way of pointing out how bravery isn’t about banishing fear or being without fear. It’s about acting in spite of it.

And that idea stuck the moment I heard it.

You have to be afraid first.

You have to be afraid.

Now, it’s not as if I don’t know what bravery is. I just don’t normally think of it as being contingent on fear. In fact I think of all such words, brave, courageous, valiant, fearless... as of a kind. All of them variations on that last word: fearless. Which is the one word that’s actually not like the others. Because the others aren’t contingent on being without fear. 

Or doubt.

Or anxiety.

Or resignation.

Or chaos.

Take your pick.

There’s a whole parade of such things that array against us. They wield enough emotional power, intimidation, that can freeze us into inaction.

That can stop us from doing anything.

So acting within what’s right for us, our families, friends, neighbors... choosing what’s healthy, rejecting dysfunction in real-time, well...

That’s brave. 

It’s not fearless. But it sure is courageous and valiant.

In the coming year, either we or people we know will face Goliaths, however such Goliaths manifest in our lives. In the coming year we will be intimidated. By circumstances. By plot-twists. By challenges. 

By fear.

We will be intimidated.

That’s just life in the big leagues.

So. Here it is:

May we all in the coming year, as we’re faced by Goliaths, be able to summon the bravery that resides within each of us. 

May we all, when gripped by indecision, doubt, anxiety, and the confusion wrought by chaos and clutter... may we all be able to summon the clarity that is ours to control.

May we all, every step of every day, know friendship, goodwill, laughter, compassion, and love.

And may we be surrounded by family and friends who sustain us. Who, by their very presence, make our lives the most excellent versions they can be.

No matter what.

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!