I heard someone once say bravery is being afraid to do something but doing it anyway & that it's not necessarily about the absence of fear or bravery being the opposite of fear. I guess bravery isn't within a binary either. Thank you once again xx
So true. Bravery is about facing threat. It can’t exist without a consequence to fear or at least uncertainty to overcome. Also I love calling it non-binary. Those fears and consequences follow structure but they are unique to us and the weight of the history we carry. Even what we fear in the first place is colored by our experiences
I’ve actually reflected on this a lot: I think Myq really hit it on the head with action. Words and feelings are good and helpful but action, even if that action is just saying words aloud and going on the record for it, is what really matters. Good words inspire action within you and that’s why words are important but that’s what it boils down to. (Sometimes inaction is the action here too) Bravery is a practice that’s lived: a means to an end, not the end itself. You don’t have to believe in it as long as it’s done because you did the thing anyways, whatever you were brave about. You can not let some fears affect you and still be working on others. Sometimes it’s not linear; you need a break and have to sit or go back. And because it’s an ongoing thing, this is all to be expected bc It’s not something that can be maintained 24/7.
Often, bravery is keeping the vision when others, or even you yourself can’t see it, and in the vast emptiness around, sometimes all you have are the footsteps on the ground before you. When your feet are tired and your mind is considering giving up you can trace their path and lose yourself in matching their pace and take heart in the fact there are footprints and no skeletons. It doesn’t matter if others walked there first, if they knew where they were going or if the steps they took were taken with conviction. (And they even probably weren’t, but of course the steps themselves could never relay that, we’re left to color them with our own expectations of the people who left them.)
It’s living life out publicly when you could be blacklisted for it--unofficially or officially depending on how bad thing could get in the rising waves of transphobia; it’s fighting for Catra/Adora as end game and for them to live and be happy, to say this love matters and I won’t punish them for it and I fucking dare you to pull that Jenga block; it’s being vulnerable to share the parts of yourself that are complex or imperfect have potential to alienate you or bring you to judgement or inflame personal conflict to share what peace and hope you’ve found through your struggle to others lost in that same desert. I don’t think you need to worry about your courage, Nate. We’re all on this thread because we saw your footprints and felt less alone. Thank you!
Thank you for this, and for all that you do. I wish we didn't have to be brave in order to exist visably. But in this world in which we do? Thank you for being there. You inspire me to be there for others too. <3
🩷❤🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🤎🖤🩶🤍
I heard someone once say bravery is being afraid to do something but doing it anyway & that it's not necessarily about the absence of fear or bravery being the opposite of fear. I guess bravery isn't within a binary either. Thank you once again xx
So true. Bravery is about facing threat. It can’t exist without a consequence to fear or at least uncertainty to overcome. Also I love calling it non-binary. Those fears and consequences follow structure but they are unique to us and the weight of the history we carry. Even what we fear in the first place is colored by our experiences
Exactly, we each feel & experience things differently, yet similarly. And they are all valid.
"i wish i was braver" is a thought i have almost every single day. thank you for this comic <3
dear ND,
this is beautiful.
i don't know if being brave is a feeling.
perhaps it's an action, or even just a state of being.
or a state of doing.
it seems to me that you are being and/or doing it.
for everything that you ARE doing and being, thank you.
"follow me and i will follow you" is wonderful and reminds me of the ram dass concept of how we are all walking each other home.
love,
myq
I wish you good luck, in having to be brave even if you don't feel it. I... I hope my own faltering steps will lead me to somewhere worth going, too.
I’ve actually reflected on this a lot: I think Myq really hit it on the head with action. Words and feelings are good and helpful but action, even if that action is just saying words aloud and going on the record for it, is what really matters. Good words inspire action within you and that’s why words are important but that’s what it boils down to. (Sometimes inaction is the action here too) Bravery is a practice that’s lived: a means to an end, not the end itself. You don’t have to believe in it as long as it’s done because you did the thing anyways, whatever you were brave about. You can not let some fears affect you and still be working on others. Sometimes it’s not linear; you need a break and have to sit or go back. And because it’s an ongoing thing, this is all to be expected bc It’s not something that can be maintained 24/7.
Often, bravery is keeping the vision when others, or even you yourself can’t see it, and in the vast emptiness around, sometimes all you have are the footsteps on the ground before you. When your feet are tired and your mind is considering giving up you can trace their path and lose yourself in matching their pace and take heart in the fact there are footprints and no skeletons. It doesn’t matter if others walked there first, if they knew where they were going or if the steps they took were taken with conviction. (And they even probably weren’t, but of course the steps themselves could never relay that, we’re left to color them with our own expectations of the people who left them.)
It’s living life out publicly when you could be blacklisted for it--unofficially or officially depending on how bad thing could get in the rising waves of transphobia; it’s fighting for Catra/Adora as end game and for them to live and be happy, to say this love matters and I won’t punish them for it and I fucking dare you to pull that Jenga block; it’s being vulnerable to share the parts of yourself that are complex or imperfect have potential to alienate you or bring you to judgement or inflame personal conflict to share what peace and hope you’ve found through your struggle to others lost in that same desert. I don’t think you need to worry about your courage, Nate. We’re all on this thread because we saw your footprints and felt less alone. Thank you!
This, you absolutely nailed it.
this is a raw feeling.
It's a common refrain I hear. "I don't want to be brave. I just want to live."
Unfortunately, the world as it is doesn't allow for living as yourself for most unless you face the threat of harm and death almost every day.
I wish we didn't have to be brave. Thank you for this comic.
We'll all walk together and through.
Bravery is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it :)
Beautiful. I needed to hear this today
This is really powerful. Thank you
Chopping off your tits doesn't make you a man, it makes you a woman who chopped her tits off.
Non-Binary is complete bunk btw.
Thank you Nate <3 maybe you don't feel brave, but so many of us are walking in your footsteps anyway.
Thank you for this, and for all that you do. I wish we didn't have to be brave in order to exist visably. But in this world in which we do? Thank you for being there. You inspire me to be there for others too. <3
amazing comic, as always.. and far too relatable :,)
This is wonderful, thank you.