WAYS TO BE BRAVE -- by Jane Kelley

This is not a picture of me.

Leaving the ground in a tiny airplane is difficult for me. I could never, ever, ever have jumped out of one. I certainly wouldn't have been smiling like my husband Lee was. 

He has been brave in many other ways. When we were younger, we lived in an apartment in Hell's Kitchen New York. He kept a baseball bat by our door just in case he needed to stop a fight in the hallway. Sometimes he went to court to stand up to the drug dealers who also lived in our building. 

Being brave is often defined as being the ones who run into the burning building when others are running out.  Who rise to the challenge of the climactic moment. The fight. The battle. The war. 

I'm in awe of that kind of bravery. I don't intend to take anything away from those who have done those deeds.

And yet I keep thinking about other kinds of courage. That aren't celebrated. And maybe aren't even noticed.

The people who have chosen to make strangers into neighbors and look out for them.

The people who decide every day to live longer for their loved ones by taking their meds, or going to the gym, or keeping that sobriety pledge. 

The people who plant a tree for the next generation and a garden for this one.  

And even the people who don't run flee when they see this on their computer screen.

The people who face their fears, tap a few keys, and make something that may eventually become a story that provides hope, encourages empathy, or a moment of delight. And in that way, change someone's life.

JANE KELLEY usually scribbles her first draft by hand so that her characters can help her confront that terrifying blank page.