Friday Favorites – Be Brave
Happy Friday! I could not be more thrilled for the weekend. Initially this weekend was going to be a girls getaway but thankfully we both realized not even getting away would remove the to do list from our heads right now! No way were we wasting our time away without begin able to truly unplug. For some reason this week I have not been sleeping well which is not the norm for me and I am so looking forward to catching up with sleep and being a little lazy.
I’m also going to be working on some meal planning and found this free downloadable template I thought might help. I’m hoping to plan for breakfast, lunch and dinner and create my grocery list all on the same page. Next step will be ordering my groceries online! I’m really hoping this weekend I will maximize my time.
Braving the scrapbook table is also on my list! This is an area that has been neglected forever and a day. My bones have been aching for a little all day scrapbook session but I’m not confident this will be the weekend. At least getting organized will have me ready when the time comes.
Enough fluff, here is some all out honesty for you on the blog today. Things you will rarely see me discuss or comment about are politics and current events. Politics, for obvious reasons, as I do not feel the need nor is it my strong suit to debate the ins and outs of left vs right. Current events, however, is a different story. I joke sometimes to my friends if something really terrible is about to happen they may want to give me a buzz because I would not know. There was a time when I was an every day news watching kind of girl but when the world got a little uglier I shut it out. I don’t watch it on TV, I don’t look news up on the internet and I avoid reading the paper. It has been my way of sheltering my heart because I really just don’t want to know or believe the world can be such an ugly place nor do I want to believe there is so much hate among the people I share even my small little town with. None of that changes the fact these things all exist.
I don’t want to be brave enough when it comes right down to it. Do I love others and try to support good in the world? Yes, I think I do but is my silence and unwillingness to be informed just outright cowardly? I consider myself a strong woman right up until I look at myself in this area.
This week I witnessed two women share from their heart and be brave. Lindsay from Bourbon and Lipstick shared Fighting the Good Fight and it really made me think. As a person in a privileged class it is really easy to believe things are not so bad but it’s true, just because I haven’t experienced discrimination and racism directly does not mean it doesn’t exist.
The second incident came from my friend Katy, one of the bravest women I know. Katy is not afraid AT ALL to share her feelings on these matters and her post this week, Raising the Change, really did bring up the essence of where all this begins. Hate is learned but so is love!
So here’s just a small example of how something small can change us if we are willing to just open our mouths and stop accepting those small things which have become so easily acceptable. The thing about Katy, when she chooses not to keep silent she shares from a place of love and truly wants to educate instead of shame you. I’m not proud to share this but want to as just a small example of how even I find myself using derogatory words which could be harmful to others without a second thought. This week I shared an invite I was working on with Katy and in my email I actually wrote “is this too gay” without a second thought. When Katy responded she wrote “now Shelly, if you are asking if it is dumb then just say dumb”. Y’all, it took me five minutes to figure out what the hell she was talking about! As a society it has become that easy to say something so simply without even giving it a second thought as to the implications it could have on someone else. My uncle was gay, I have friends who are gay and I would be appalled for them to know I was throwing around the word as some sort of negative.
I will still probably not watch the news daily and it is possible continue to live under a rock when it comes to the ugly in the world. What I will do is try to be brave like Katy. When I use my words I will choose them more wisely and when I hear someone else use a derogatory word I will work to educate them with kindness. Mostly I will work to raise my kids to see how words can inflict pain as easily as a weapon.
How are you being brave today?
Wishing you all a love filled weekend!
Visit the Linkup Love to see who I’m joining this week!