Monday, May 18, 2009

Heads Or Tails#91 - Brave

The theme/prompt for this week is:

TAILS - "Brave"

Tell about a time when you felt brave or showed bravery. (This is TAILS so it needs to be a true/real post from your own life.)



October 28, 2006, I got married for the second time. I had gotten all my things packed beforehand and the next day I moved from the west side of Michigan to the east side.

Getting married involves a degree of BRAVERY to some, but for me it meant moving away from my kids and grandkids. This was a very BRAVE move (pardon the pun) on my part. My kids had been the main focus of my life for about thirty-one years.

I was leaving them and that part of my life behind to start a new life away from them. I was moving to a city I was unfamiliar with and into an apartment I had not seen. My husband-to-be had picked out the new apartment, paid first and last month's rent and the deposit already.

Another reason this was a BRAVE thing for me to do was I was housebound with Agoraphobia and panic attacks. We had met online five years earlier and the whole time we dated he did most of my grocery shopping when he'd drive over. We rarely went out to eat or to the movies or other things people dating usually do.

To go outside meant I had to leave the "safety" of my home. Sometimes I was able to transfer that safe place to his pickup truck and we could go for drives or even short vacations now and then. Sometimes we had to turn around and go back home because it was too much for me to handle. Those times I did not feel very BRAVE at all.

Anyone that has been following my blog the last week knows our marriage has undergone a lot of testing lately. Sometimes it takes a lot of BRAVERY to stay and try to salvage what you can. Sometimes it takes a lot of BRAVERY to leave if there's nothing worth staying for.

The trick is knowing the difference.





13 comments:

Kim said...

You are an extremely brave woman. Thank you for sharing some of your 'brave' moments with everyone. Happy HoT day!

Misty DawnS said...

You are more brave than even you realize! This is a truly fantastic post!

Pssst - we reading each other's minds or what?!?! It was Gina, wasn't it???

Inspiration Alley said...

When I read your posts I so so many parallels with my own life. It takes a lot of courage to even try to face up to your fears and sometimes being brave means not conquering them all in one day, but getting up day after day and trying again. Been a while since I've managed to take part but it's good to be back. I needed to read your post today. It helped me. Thank you.

anthonynorth said...

A very brave thing to do. I know when I met my wife we lived some 200 miles apart. We married after six months, during which time we'd actually been with each other for about 3 weeks in snatched weekends.
It turned out to be the right thing. We celebrated our 32nd anniversay last week.

Hootin Anni said...

Anything in life, my dear Barb, takes bravery! That's the challenge given to us, and we need to handle it our way....with no ands ifs or buts.

What's right for YOU is what's right.

Grace said...

It's a very smart person that realizes when they are being brave too. I hope to be back later today with my HOTS... my head is very full with (can you believe it?) work stuff... so I'm having a mental block on coming up with a post.

Lisa - Life Is Like a Box of Legos said...

Bravery is definitely tied to courage - and it takes both to change regardless of what that change entails (moving, staying, attitude shifting ...) Even thinking outside the box (which is what I thought when I saw your post graphic) is brave! Keep moving forward!

Robyn Jones said...

You are one brave lady....I don't know if I would have had the balls to start over.....Thanks for being an inspiration...

Karen said...

I think you have been very brave. Even more than you give yourself credit for.

Mom Knows Everything said...

You are very brave! I don't think I could leave my family and start all over again in a totally different place. You're one tough cookie!

CJ said...

It was incredibly brave of you!

cjh

Le Butterfly said...

great post

lupusurvivor said...

i love the 'The trick is knowing the difference.' thanks for the visit. i know you're rejoicing now since your bet for AI have won.