Around here we write for five minutes flat on Fridays.
We finger paint with words. We try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.
Where your words are welcome, just as they are! (<–-Tweet this!)
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Meet & encourage someone who linked up before you.
OK, are you ready? Give us your best five minutes on:
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Brave…
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GO
Words can hug the distance between us. Friends can step through computer screens. Women can connect without fear of other women’s shoes. We can invite you into a heart gone all velveteen with wanting to be known.
But will you come?
Will you put on the brave boots and face and show up so that we can tell you you’re welcome?
Friends are hard work. There’s no getting around it. The only way is through. Through the knowing and the showing up and the forgiving and the laughing and the folding laundry together and the walking kids to school and the daring to do the ugly cry in front of you.
What is there to lose other than the bad mascara?
We feel real in the bones. In the seam of who we are. Real stitches new lines, strengthens frayed edges. And real makes us brave, to connect, to trust, to tell our true stories. Something always has to give – perfect or real.
I’m practicing the brave choice these days.
STOP
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OK, show me what you’ve got.
{Subscribers, you can just click here to come over and play along}
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Friendship can be so hard and kinda scary too. I’m tempted to shrink back and keep to myself but instead I’m joining with you -practicing brave choices.
I love this… I love the authenticity of all your posts… this short while I have been visiting here… I find your words I read work on my soul as I go throughout my days… and they make me better :)
And the community here at 5 Minute Fridays… has blessed me in ways that words cannot convey…
Thank you for opening up… thank you for all of it…
They’re something wonderful, the word folks who share over here, aren’t they? So glad you join us!
I swear I didn’t read yours before I wrote mine. :) They’re very similar in idea though. Love when God’s speaking to someone else in the same way as me! Happy Friday, Lisa-Jo!
You know…I felt safe like this when I met you and Holley G for the first time at Relevant. You both made me feel valued you just be remembering who I was in the see of faces and words and blogs and media that I know you are both innundated with daily.
You bless my socks off…actually Arno say ROCK my SOCKS off……ahh…that’s sounds MUCH better!
I LOVE that you felt that – that makes me so so happy :)
Feeling real in the bones…I *like* that, Lisa-Jo!
(BTW…is there a linky thing I’m not seeing???)
It’s working now, Robin. Not sure what the glitch was…try again?
I love “I’m practice the brave choices…” especially when that means “the ugly cry”. Not that I like crying. I hate it in fact. I just know that God’s got me on that same journey. My most popular post is called Don’t Friend Me and it’s on that same topic. Real. Ugly. Changed! Because it’s so much better than the perfect facade.
The beauty of REAL friendships! Love that I can be a mess in front of them and they still love and accept me!
Amen! Me, too! Choosing brave and trusting in the purposes of friendships, as hard as it often is.
I don’t have a blog or site of my own. Here’s my bit on BRAVE.
If there is another way to do this, can you let me know?
Gypsy Mama, I LOVE your down-to-earth realness. I had a bit of a breakthrough this week in further accepting who I am and it was after reading a blog of yours. Your realness is healing.
Thank you
BRAVE
Brave is freedom. It is knowing I can be me. Stand up for what I want and what I believe.
Brave is allowing others to be themselves. Without trying to change them to be something
that I am more comfortable with (essentially trying to be more comfortable in my own skin).
Brave is believe there is something greater for me. Not going for the scraps that are thrown my way.
Not gathering up every teeny and even not-so-teeny bit of attention or affection crumb that is thrown my
way. Believing that I can’t change the way people treat me or love me, but I can change the way
I love myself. Which first begins with the acceptance of who I am.
I love that you shared your five minutes with us here. “Brave is allowing others to be themselves. Without trying to change them ” – isn’t that the truth? Amazing how hard that can be, especially for us as mothers I think….
Is anyone having trouble linking. I wrote on my blog but dont see the usual place to link to your blog!! http://halfbakedhomemaking.com/2012/03/5-minute-friday-brave/
I think everyone is having the same problem.
It’s working for me, girls. I just checked it. Want to try again?
THANK YOU!!! I will try it again and thank you for all your posts!!
Being real, it does make us brave. And I think you are quite a brave woman as I read your words most days. Thank you Lisa, for your generous heart that brings women into community in this space and over at incourage.
Really enjoying all the encouraging posts about being brave.
Here’s my link since it looks like the linky thing isn’t working. :) http://joyouslyredeemed.blogspot.com/2012/03/five-minute-friday-brave.html
I had a friend who was not a friend. She was extremely well-groomed and attractive and “successful” and a great party-giver and “nice” in a lot of ways. But she had not a single book in her house which was perfectly neat, even the drawers and she really had no hobbies other than shopping. No volunteer activities. No church. So one day after she said the 100th mean thing to her child — who was friends with my child — I thought “Why am I here?” And that was the end of the psuedo-affection between us.
For me, this was brave because I realized I had never been honest with her. Or with myself. While I pride myself on not judging others, certainly I must have some discernment and at the core of us, we didn’t have values in common and why on earth would I be friends for more than 10 years with someone who doesn’t share my values? Thus I learned to open myself up first to myself and then to others and to let people know what I REALLY believe. Ah. Freedom! Be BRAVE! You will have real friends who love you more than false friends who didn’t know the real you.
“The only way is through. ” How wildly true this is. blessings, Lisa-Jo. Your heart is awesome.
I wish I could be brave and start an #inRL meetup… but I’m not! AND my husband is going to be out of town that weekend, so I can’t really lead or attend.
Is it worth $10 to do it all by my lonesome in between feeding kids and breaking up fights and bathing kids and feeding kids again, and picking up the house…. ???
Yes, Julie Anne. I promise it is. It’s worth it because we moms need our souls fed in between feeding everyone else’s needs. And I promise this will be wildly wonderful soul food. And you can tune in anytime Saturday – so while kids nap or you can wait till they’re tucked in bed and you can dish yourself dessert and come let all those (in)courage women encourage you!
Thanks, Lisa Jo,
I did it… don’t know what it will look like, but we are gonna give it a go… thanks for the encouragement!
I feel the exact same way! I want to attend a meetup, but I don’t want to be the first to start.
You don’t live in Ontario, Canada by chance? :D
sorry… northeast PA, here!! :) I signed up to watch and be encouraged (or is it (in)couraged at home!! :)
I, too, am practicing this kind of brave—but it is scary! ;-)
Yes…this is good and challenging…I feel this challenge myself…trying to figure where God is leading me in all this….blessings and thank you for this sweet place…
That truly does require bravery! :)
Wonderful!! And thanks for hosting – I participated for my first time ever! That took a little bravery on my part – LOL! :)
Oh my heart, a blog called “Stop and Smell the Chocolate”? I just died and went to heaven….