I wrote a thing for the Huffington Post, about race and education. People read the thing and shared the thing. There was some backlash. I didn’t love opening my email for a minute. But we made it through. And now? Now people are calling me brave.
And I guess it was brave, I knew when I wrote it that it wouldn’t be universally loved. But I certainly wasn’t expecting the kind of attention I have currently recieved! (Hey new readers! The comments over hear are not scary. I promise.) But really I was just doing the next right thing for me.
What the heck does brave mean? And who gets to decide what that is? I think YOU get to decide. And I think that you are probably not giving yourself enough credit. Because I think you are probably being very brave.
Showing up is really brave. To your family, to your work, at a church or organization that is made of people and can therefore be sort of messy. You are showing up, and that is brave.
There are a lot of ways to be brave.
Scarcity tells us that you have to be a BIG deal and get a BIG chance to be brave.
Scarcity is a liar, and that junk is a lie from the pit.
Abundance says doing the next right thing is REALLY really brave. I am glad you are showing up to your own life. Abundance is real, and you already are brave.
Abby Norman 
Preach!
Hi Abby,
I read your article and I thought it was great. I guess my question is how do we get people to support the schools in their neighborhood? I lived in a neighborhood where the schools were not considered great and even though I am not a parent I volunteered at the school and tried to get my neighborhood more involved but alas I did not receive any real support.
This is a really really hard question. I also tried to support my neighborhood school before my kid got there and it was just much harder to do when they weren’t in there. Keep trying. The teachers ALL teachers even ones at a “good” school are overwhelmed. Try the social worker. See if there is ONE concrete thing like snacks, or a fall festival, or a writing tutor, that someone needs. I am thrilled people want to talk about this.
Being brave seems to be a relative term. If you have the capacity to do something and do it, that’s not brave. But when you do not have the capacity to do something but because it’s the right thing to do, you step up to the plate and give it your all, then it’s brave. So something normal to you could be extremely brave for me, or vice-versa!
I loved that article but didn’t realize until just now that you wrote it! Well done!
Brave is playing the quads ’till you pass out because you were the quad player. Brave is leading a pretty normal live through the pain. You have always been brave.