Here’s this week’s installment of Five Minute Friday. You might remember the task is to write for five minutes on a specific prompt word. The initiative was started by Lisa-Jo Baker (http://lisajobaker.com/2013/05/five-minute-friday-brave-2/http://) who thought about writing and how often our perfectionism gets in the way of our words. And she figured, why not take five minutes and see what comes out: not a perfect post, not a profound post, just five minutes of focused writing.

This week’s prompt is BRAVE.

So, the timer is set … so here goes. {clock starts now}

When I think of the word brave I think past tense. It’s not really an action, but more of a reaction. We describe people as being brave or having bravery, but at the moment of decision, that’s the furthest thing from their mind. It’s reacting — selflessly– to the situation and moving forward. It doesn’t matter whether you’re referring to a soldier in battle or a person battling a debilitating illness. They do not enter the situation brave. They react to the situation … which makes them brave.

The bravest person I know was my wife. Karen faced her cancer head on, never complaining despite nagging pain. She vowed through the illness she was going to live every day to its fullest {I wish she had felt that way earlier, but, hey}. She wasn’t going to let a silly little thing like cancer beat her spirit.

One of the last things she said to me was, “Keep me comfortable if you must, but I have a final destination to go to. I’ll meet you there.”

That’s bravery. A five month journey into the unknown.

You hear that from soldiers as well. I knew a Medal of Honor recipient who never considered himself “brave” or a “hero”. He told me once all he did was follow his training and instinct. He wasn’t trying to be a hero. But he and a fellow soldier cleared seven bunkers during an ambush in Vietnam, driving an enemy platoon from a well prepared position.

That’s bravery in action.

The list just goes on and on.  … STOP

Well, that’s what popped into this mind this week.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: Procrastination makes an easy job seem more difficult.