All of us have been brave some times in our lives.  We probably don’t give ourselves credit for the bravery we muster up just doing seemingly mundane tasks, like

* the first time you take your newborn outside for a walk all by yourself
* standing up to give a toast when you don’t know what you’re going to say but you know you have to say something
* entering your first, or hundredth, contest
* submitting your first, or hundredth, piece for publication
We all dig down to find our shards of bravery all the time.  I know we do.  But then, of course, there are others…

 Some people are brave in their actions.  Some have been brave in their thoughts.  Others have been brave in their writing.  But it is quite unusual to find someone who has been brave in all three.  Deborah Rey is such a person.  She lived an existence requiring enormous courage at an early age.  She then persevered throughout adulthood to try to make sense of her past and build a life.  And now in her later years (as she is the first to point out) she has written it all down with truth, eloquence, heart and enormous courage.  I’ve been lucky to have received one of the advanced signed copies of the extraordinary book, Rachel Sarai’s Vineyard .  Some of you may already have heard about it.  But I urge you to rush out and order your own copy.  I’ve thought that I’ve understood the meaning of bravery before.  But only by reading this book can you, like me, catch a glimpse of what that word can truly mean.  Simply extraordinary.  Thank you, Deborah!

I’m signing off for a few days while I go visit a friend who is testing the depths of her own courage now in her own way.  See you next week.