Well… I’ll tell you what’s brave!

The world has bravery all upside down half the time.

It’s not the people with exceptional stories that go viral occasionally who are the bravest of souls. Uh-uh.

It’s the person who reaches out by taking a risk, to tell her story in a way that liberates her from the stereotypes that flourish in her head. As she tells the world about her condition, she inspires the mother of a young autistic child who is just trying to make sense of the debilitating state of her life, with a husband battling to find paid work, and a daughter on the way.

As this mother shares her fears, guilt, despair and anger with her counsellor, she learns that she isn’t messed up after all. Could it really be that anyone in her situation would find it just as hard? She experiences empathy in this relationship, and something emerges that was always inside her. She’s inspired to share with others.

She shares this hope with her older brother who has just seen his marriage go up in smoke. For the first time in his life, he’s ready to shut up and listen. He needs empathy. He is desperate for hope. He is gutted and God finally has his attention. He is turning over a new leaf.

In his recovery group, he hears other men and women share their struggles without hiding their shame. Amazed at such a freak of timing (he’s never been readier for sharing his innermost fears—that just seem to be coming to life right now), he cannot believe the paradox; his life had to end before it could begin. Bittersweet doesn’t even go close to describing how he reflects on the state of his life. But he’s oddly thankful.

He shares his experience with a work colleague who just learned her mother has terminal cancer. They’re estranged. She is in the valley of decision. She knows it’s now or never. Put the past behind her to save the interminable regret that stares her down. She enters a journey of forgiveness with her mother, who just so happens to share an horrific secret past of hidden abuse that she’s buried beneath a disconnected, aloof manifestation of narcissism. Pennies drop. Instant empathy and healing.

That mother later shares her story with a particular nurse she gets close to. Something miraculous begins to take place in the nurse’s life. It appears they’ve been bound together by shared experience, even if these experiences are sixty years apart.

The nurse is a mother of a child with an intellectual impairment. She battles to earn enough to cover all their expenses. The going was too tough for husband and father who departed for a life of seclusion five years beforehand. Now she reaches out to a friend that shared something about adverse childhood experiences on social media.

What we have here are a half dozen stories of bravery. Courage simply to “do” life.

Kind of reframes what we think of when it comes to bravery, doesn’t it?

There are a million stories of common bravery that would not rate a mention in our world today or any day. Yet, kindness identifies bravery and calls it. Hope blossoms in brave souls who are noticed. Empathy is the language of understanding. Where people are noticed for their bravery, that understanding helps them feel connected to their world, and they are less fearful and even braver as a result.