{"id":1680,"date":"2019-07-18T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1680"},"modified":"2019-07-17T19:29:29","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T23:29:29","slug":"to-be-brave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1680","title":{"rendered":"To be brave&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>To Be Brave<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid.\u201d L. Frank Baum<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/BayBrightPL080715B_2.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-1681\" src=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/BayBrightPL080715B_2-256x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"146\" height=\"171\" srcset=\"http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/BayBrightPL080715B_2-256x300.jpeg 256w, http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/BayBrightPL080715B_2-768x901.jpeg 768w, http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/BayBrightPL080715B_2-873x1024.jpeg 873w, http:\/\/hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/BayBrightPL080715B_2.jpeg 1352w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 146px) 100vw, 146px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m a storyteller and musician. Don\u2019t let anyone fool you into thinking that every time a performer stands up in front of an audience there is not some sense of foreboding. Granted, for the most part, there is no danger involved in telling stories or singing to adults or children in public; but fears and anxieties do exist. The fears usually fall into the categories of forgetting a part of the song or story, audience distractions, weak participation, or a bad review. I\u2019ve never performed, whether it be to a crowd or even to an individual, where I didn\u2019t have some fear inside of me that said, \u201cThis might not work out for you today.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In spite of that fear, I go forward and perform. Do I make mistakes?&#8230; Yes. Does my audience always participate as I want?&#8230; No. Are there distractions?&#8230; Lots of times. But I haven\u2019t quit yet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my opinion, to claim to have no fear demonstrates a lack of involvement and caring. To be so confident that you are going to do everything correctly and be a star is just plain ego. And be assured the audience gets that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagine a performance where the teller stands up, looks out above the audience and just says, \u201cWell, you know, once upon a time, yada, yada, yada and they all lived happily ever after. Right?\u201d That\u2019s confidence. No fear there. The teller knows everything, he\u2019s done it time and time again. And the audience always loves him, after all, they clapped at the end. Maybe not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now imagine a performer who thinks about those fears, acknowledges them and continues to perform, no matter how many times they\u2019ve performed the same story, by standing in front of that audience, knowing that they might mess up and they might not get the reaction they want; that\u2019s bravery. The teller loses themself in the story once they begin and lets the fear guide their telling rather than inhibit it. That\u2019s bravery. \u201cOnce upon a time, a long time ago, there was a teller of tales. He looked out at the people, focused on a single face and became the story, not the teller.\u201d\u00a0 And so the tale begins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bravery doesn\u2019t come from being self-assured and fearless. It comes from knowing what you fear and letting it remind you to do the best you can despite those fears. It acknowledges that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. It allows you to try new things and become what you are meant to be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brave.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To Be Brave \u201cThere is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid.\u201d L. Frank Baum I\u2019m a storyteller and musician. Don\u2019t let anyone fool you &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1680\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,175,2,5,7],"tags":[67,16],"class_list":["post-1680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-stories","category-storytelling","category-storytelling-general","category-storytelling-tips","category-story-writing","tag-harvey-heilbrun","tag-storytelling"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}