My first response was to recall a scene from the film “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”. One of the gunslingers fighting for the villagers has a go at the youngsters in the village. They say their fathers unlike the gunslinger are cowards. He firmly and passionately explains how their fathers are brave. They plant their crop, protect it and after a year harvest it. That he says is bravery. I do not think I could wait that long to find out if my efforts return an income.

When I was younger people called me brave. This was because I travelled on my own accross Europe and down to Morocco. Yet I always had a job to come back to. Sometimes it was a new job, thus I could travel for a month before returning home. I never had the courage to leave work and take the hippy trial.

I am braver dealing with clients and their relatives. I am able to accept them venting to me, not responding except to be empathetic. I feel less threatened by aggression. I have become calmer over the years. I find myself in situations that I could not have handled so well when a newly qualified nurse.

So going forth, how can I be brave.

Brave enough to write, to travel and to study. To live my life to the full.

For as Nelson Mandela said in his inauguration speech. We help our fellow humans when we do not act small, for in living to our full potential we give others permission to live their lives to the full.

Be brave, be yourself for you are no coward.