Hello beloveds!

We want to write a bit about what it means to be brave. Some of you will think oh, I know, it means you are never afraid! Others will say no, it means you are afraid sometimes but you do it anyway! Those are two ideas about bravery that are currently in circulation, and some of each of them may or may not apply to you.

Today what we want to say about bravery is: this is what you are doing when you choose something different than you have always done before. If you are a person who tends to push on through, to get things done, and who likes to accomplish things, then it takes a lot of bravery to allow yourself to rest. To be fallow. To run dry and not know the next step. Some people come to this place through intention – I see I need to do something differently or I will burn out – but some people come through a slide and a crash and a burn. It can be difficult from this place to see the courage you exhibit, because you may feel you have no choice. You may think that whatever care you take of yourself, it brings no rewards. You may believe you are a failure, because doing things differently doesn’t yet feel any different, and doing things the same old way brings pain. You may feel trapped, and sad, and worthless.

It brings discomfort when you do things differently. Bravery is very often an uncomfortable place to be. But if you look into that discomfort, you will see it is just the discomfort of old beliefs being scrubbed away. Although they cling tenaciously, you can say to them thank you, you have done your work here, see you later, goodbye!

It is a little bit like washing a grater or a sieve after it was left to dry with material like cheese or something on it. You can’t just scrub it off. It needs soaking first, to loosen up the relationship between the food and the surface onto which it has fused. If you attack it, you will skin your knuckles and also exert a lot of effort for not much return, which will only add to your feelings of futility and irritation. But if you let it soak a while, and go do something relaxing yourself, when you come back it will loosen of its own accord and let itself be rinsed off and away.

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is to take a nice hot bath.