100 Days to Brave - Day 3 "Moments someone else might label as brave."

Day 3 - Moments someone else might label as brave. 

People who hear my stories often tell me how brave I am.  They tell me they could never do the things I do.  Looking back, I know I have lived a brave life.  I take chances...big chances...sometimes too big.  In my outwardly brave life, I have experienced awesome adventures, witnessed beauty in small moments of time, and longed for and inwardly braver self.  I am brave on the outside, not on the inside.

Annie mentioned in her book, 100 days to Brave, she too never felt brave. She said "...each day, I just did the next thing, took the next step, said the next yes."  Looking back, I have said the same thing to myself.  Let's look at where I am with establishing Caring Hearts and Voices as a non-profit. 

I vividly recall telling my mom I wanted to help homeless people when I was young.  (I think I was maybe 10 years old?) I stood behind my mom in the kitchen, watching as she stirred her deliciously fluffy mexican rice in one pan, then dropping rolled up meat into a pot of boiling tomato water with some carrots, onions, and potatoes.  The smell of her homemade mexican food comforted me in our humble home...a luxury I knew I was fortunate enough to enjoy. She said she used to want to do the same thing, but never really did, there's too many people to help. "There has to be a way to help, even if there is too many people to help."  What she said next, shaped my life. "Listen to your heart, Maria. God will tell you what to do."  Everytime I hear the whispers in my head "there's too many people to help", I replace them with "listen to your heart, Maria. God will tell you what to do." 

God led me back to music.  He led me to performing at church, then a random coffee shop in Aurora, IL, then to senior communities, then to a hospice center in Woodstock, IL (where I will go later today), open mic nights, and so on.  He led me to people who needed music. To people who also love music.  To people who have amazing talents in music and advertising, and building small businesses, in running non-profits, in leading volunteer groups, in writing books, and in building communities for those who typically work from home and need to get out and socialize!  I have met amazing people. Each person I met was me saying yes to building connections.  Each performance I offered was my next yes to sharing my music to those in need.  Each form I completed was my next yes in establishing this dream of my to help people in need through music.  

People often tell me how brave I am.  Each time they do I withdraw within myself not really knowing what to do with the amazing love I feel from inside me with these words.  I think I am starting to realize that his amazing love I feel is God hugging me.  Thanking me for listening to His words of encouragement. I am brave. You can be brave too. Listen to your heart. God will tell you what to do.