MelodyFreebird

Capturing a Soul on Film....Mr. Ross

Sometimes I just sit and stare at him while he is watching t.v. or fixing something. I am really SEEing the gray hairs coming in his beard and the really big & deep lines on the sides of his eyes that have come from so much smiling and laughing.  I absolutely adore this man. He is teaching me so much lately, as we have long talks about life and how it is changing for us and drawing us even closer together....

And whilte he talks I stare at him....he is perfection to me, of the most imperfect kind.....I think...holy moley...we have been through a lot together and it is engraved on our faces...and starting to make it's own little art project...or map...right on our faces....lines are appearing...and age spots....I love that we are getting them together......both of us are looking older this year and somehow it is o.k.

I want to tell you about this clock...

But first I want to tell you how cool and wonderful it is that he has spent the last few months working his tushy off getting a shop all set up. You see, there is nothing fancy schmancy about my husband. He is a working man. He craves and loves a simple life. He has done all that he can to make all of my big dreams come true...but he is all about the simple life.......he loves to work, he loves to serve in his community, he loves to build things and fix things. He works a ton....usually with our little boys by his side, or one of our daughters....

I stopped to see him the other day, and because my eyes have been opened more and more to all of the little miracles in life, the less screen time I have...I looked around and saw so much beauty....so much of HIS SOUL. This place embodies so much of who he is....I love these photos...

These are some old metal drawers from his grandfather's service station:

 

Marq's Granddad, who is his hero, died a few months back and before he got really sick, he invited Marq to work in his shop. In his younger years, he owned the service station in town, he was the fire chief, and he had a ranch. His shop is full of his old tools, and cool things from his service station...like this clock. The last few summers, even as sick as he was, he would bring an old aluminum frame lawn chair out to the shop and just sit and watch Marq work...and talk to him....after he died.....Marq started cleaning up and really remodeling the shop.....making it fully functioning. He put lights back in the clock and cleaned it all up.......and he and his dad have spent the last few months getting things all set up. I love that I have the clubhouse and he has his shop. I love that we both have our places to go and work where we get to do what we love.

As I look at these photos, they make me think about what a good man this is....and all that he teaches me every day.....I'm going to put some quotes in here that remind me of him. I love that I was able to spend some time capturing this place and him in it....this summer I am hoping to CAPTURE A SOUL ON FILM as often as I can.....I want to do this with all of the people I love.....my hope is to inspire you to do the same...capture, really really SEE the people you love....and take some time to put it all together. I am so thankful for these photos.

Have a very good reason for everything you do. 

~Laurence Olivier

The only guy I have to get better than is who I am right now. 

~M*A*S*H, Colonel Potter

My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people:  those who work and those who take the credit.  He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there. 

~Indira Gandhi

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. 

~Henry Ford

Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it.
 Autograph your work with excellence. 

~Author Unknown

 

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day. 
~Abraham Lincoln

So here he is fixing the clock. It had 50 years of dust and oil and grime. He took it all apart and cleaned it and fixed it. He misses his granddad so much...and this is a little reminder of him, lighting up the shop every day......reminding us that time is precious and the people are what matter. He also loved to work...there was a story told at his funeral about how his friends used to always tell him that he needed to stop working so hard, that he was going to kill himself from working so much and so hard...he was telling that story in his late 80's....and he said...all of the people that said that to me are dead now....so I must have done something right!!! I love that.

When I do good, I feel good.  When I do bad, I feel bad.  That's my religion. 
~Abraham Lincoln

Feeling blessed today to love and to be loved by him.

He is my dream guy.

xoxo

melody

 

 

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What I will be teaching at The Creative Connection in September...

Hi Friends!!!

Did you know that I will be both speaking and teaching at The Creative Connection in September in Minneapolis? I went to this event last year and it blew my mind. I was so honored to be asked to be a part of it this year. I will tell you honestly that it was worth the trip all the way from Idaho and that I am certain that it would be worth the trip for YOU if you are looking into going to any creative events to help you along with your creative endeavors, to meet other incredible creative women, to go to fabulous classes and hear wonderful speakers and just have an over-all blast with your friends. I met so many absolutely phenomenal women last year, a few who have become close and dear friends over the last year. There will be tons of your favorite artists and designers there, as well as experts and executives in publishing, blogging, manufacturing, etc. This is seriously THE PLACE to be if you aspire to take your artistry and creative endeavors to a new place.

Ok....so...I wanted to show you some photos of the two classes I am doing.

The first one is called BRAVE GIRL SOULBOOK

This is a book that we are making out of several sheets of cardboard and gaffer tape...then collaging all over and inside of it...BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS BOOK, is what is inside.

This is a book to look at on days that you forget who you are, what you want out of life, and what you are about. This will be a very fun and personal art journal that will be a sort of guidebook for your soul...to use when you are feeling lost...ya know? All of the words will be provided...and we will just be cutting and pasting (in the literal sense..with scissors and glue) what speaks to us each as individuals...you just need to bring some cut cardboard, some gaffer tape..and then a whole bunch of stuff to collage on....we will have some fun things for you too, but most of it, you will bring yourself so that it is uniquely yours....

here are some more photos of it.

 

Ok...the second class is called I HAVE AN IDEA Vintage Canvas

Here's the description:

"Come join me as we create this fabulous mixed media art piece to celebrate the most often spoken sentence of every creative person..."I have an idea!" Learn innovative and funky texture, background and collage techniques along with fabulous and fun techniques to make the collage your own by personalizing the edges of your deep edged canvas. A class that you will love, and an art piece you will embrace as a creative muse to take home and hang in your creative space or studio! Come join the fun!"

Here's some photos...this canvas is actually a miniature version of the HUUUUGE one that hangs in my studio...

when Jo Packham came for our Where Women Create magazine photo shoot, she fell in love with it and asked me to teach it at The Creative Connection...so I shrunk it down and made it small enough to take on a plane as a carry-on!

SOOOOOOO I hope that you will come join me!!!! You can register HERE.

And you can read all about it HERE.

It is going to be an amazing event. It will be just a few weeks after my 90 day total immersion into writing and art and my hiatus from social networking....so....I will be SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU that I will probably hug you to death!!!

Come on, join me!!!

xoxo

melody

 

 

 

 

Dear Trees...I want you to teach me....

I have long known that the trees, the forest........any group of trees....those are my people. :)  Last week when Lara picked me up at the airport and we started the drive to her "magic forest"...I had no idea what to expect...but it exceeded all of my expectations.

Before we headed to the coast last week for our photography retreat, Lara took me to her house because she had a vision for a photo shoot she wanted to do...I would dress up in a costume she cooked up and it would be magical. I'm pretty adventurous so I was all for it...

We started out draping me in green, and then in ivy and moss...it was such a total blast...I love dressing up and it was one of the most unforgettable and wonderful memories of my life.....

When we were done I looked like this: 

Many of you know of Lara's phenomenal talent as an art photographer....an artist. I know of her as a soulfriend.....and a fellow artist...and now as a world class life-coach-esque retreat facilitator. She blows my mind.

I think one of the most loving things you can do for another human being is to truly "SEE" them...I am not talking about noticing their hair or their funky new shoes...I am talking about really SEEing who she is...what she is about...what she yearns for...what scares her...what she is made of...what she is gifted at....what she is learning...what she has already learned....how absolutely heartbreakingly brilliant her spirit is.....

Lara has the gift of doing this. She does it through her camera lens and she does it through her words. She does it through being SO PRESENT when you are talking eye to eye with her...and she did it for me. I feel like she really SEEs me. I feel like she works hard to see everyone she loves, and everyone she comes across in the world...and because I try so hard to to the same...she taught me so much about it and made me want to try even harder. 

Lara, and the hours of conversations I had with her was a catalyst in my decision to unplug for the summer to make art and write. She could SEE me, and she could see that I needed to get quiet. She helped me to be brave enough to make the decision that I made.

I woke up at her house in a room in the corner of the house with windows on both sides. I was surrounded by trees. It is how I feel most at home, safest and most "understood" somehow...I know it sounds silly...but the trees are my people and it was such a gift she gave to me to let me be in her forest, but also to "capture" ME. To SEE me. I love all of the photos and you can see a whole bunch more of them here....but I wanted you to see my favorite one of all...and the little poem I wrote when I saw it...

Thank you, Lara Blair. I will love you forever and I count you as one of the greatest gifts of my life.

Dear sweet tree, you have stood there always

and you have grown so tall with such grace

and I want you to be my teacher. 

 

I want you to teach me how to stand, rooted, proud of who I am.

and how to keep standing when the wind blows

and when Winter comes and strips me of my leaves.

 

I want you to teach me to grow brand new buds

and then the blossoms, and then the fruits

and then let them go so that others can enjoy them.

 

I want you to teach me that sometimes I get to make shade for others

and sometimes my limbs are too bare

and that there is a season for all of it, no matter what.

 

I want you to teach me that I am not something else

I am what I am, and I can do what I can do 

and I already am what I am, and I know how to do what I can do.

 

I want you to teach me to grow toward the sky, limbs outstretched

sometimes even being a home for birds or squirrels 

and that my branches are strong enough to hold a few others sometimes.

 

I want you to teach me that I will stand stronger when my roots are intertwined

with the roots of those who stand next to me

but that I will make it ok if I am in a field all alone, too.

 

I want you to teach me to feel beautiful when I am covered with blossoms

and when I am covered with leaves, and when my leaves turn red

but especially when my leaves fall off for a season, leaving me raw and exposed.

 

I want you to teach me to be still in the sunshine

and still in the snow, and still in the wind

I want you to teach me to stand tall and with grace.

 

Will you teach me?

 

xoxo...back I go to my quiet life.

missing people today...lots...but I know I can do this, it is so good...so worth it.

sending love,

melody

 

The Scary Gifts of Still-ness and of Turning Off the Noise (and the fear of being forgotten)

One week ago I was walking on the beach at the Oregon Coast. I was there with a lot of new friends and a few long time friends and through the SHHHHHHHHHHHH sound that the incoming and outgoing tide makes, washing over the shore....we talked about all of the things in life that matter to us....and we talked a LOT about all of the things in life that we somehow had stopped seeing, noticing, listening to and feeling.

I think complete honesty is sometimes so scary. Partial honesty is, of course brave...but when you let it all out....all of the scary things that the white noise of those waves give permission to....you can crack wide open. When you admit to feeling weak, jealous, angry, sad, and wounded....then big things can stat to happen. Somehow, 6am walks on the beach cracked me wide open, and I watched it happen to my dear friends too. I consider myself very honest when it comes to what I am thinking and feeling, but when there is that SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH sound coming so loud and calm, it is as if it's coming straight from Heaven....where the creator of that sound is just saying..."SHHHHHHHHHH, no more worrying.....it is going to be ok." and "SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH just quiet your mind, quiet your life, quiet yourself....SHHHHHHHHHHH.....be still." ......then you crack open and all of the beauty of who you are comes flowing out, but so does all of that other stuff. When you can look fear, sadness, grief, anger, jealousy and broken-ness in the face.....even the parts that have been cleverly hiding behind your bones for years.....you can start to live big. But it requires this very scary step of getting still for long enough to give the yucky things their exit interview, and to welcome the beautiful things as part of who you REALLY are.

Still is scary. Still is incredible. Still is real and vivid and overflowing with very personal messages. Being still comes with beautiful, needed answers that you have been long seeking....but also with old, un-dealt-with emotions, feelings and irrational beliefs that make you want to turn the noise back on so you don't have to hear that part. This is the part of being still that just might matter the most....the part that is hard, the part that makes you want to turn the crazy noise back on.

So I decided to spend a summer of being still. And, now that I am almost a week into it, I am falling in love with this peace and quiet....but I am still grieving the constancy of noise and feedback and information and validation and the very easy to validate tool of procrastination. All that is left is honesty. All that is left is me and my heartbeat and my thoughts and my feelings and my memories and my longings and my stories and my wisdom and my questions. A peace has washed through my body that is like nothing I can remember, but I am going to have to get used to it. I know I will. I know that this is what I must do. I love almost all of it, but there are parts that are hard....especially when I am all alone with all of it.

I wanted to show you some of the photos I took on this amazing weekend that cracked me open again. The wonderful thing about life is that we get cracked open when we need to.....and often under the circumstances that will be most effective. I was in the perfect place, under the perfect circumstances.

To be in a place as beautiful and comforting and quiet and lovely and safe as this, made me realize that ALL OF US must do whatever it takes to get to places like this from time to time. Even if it is only by closing our eyes and imagining these kinds of places with our precious selves wrapped in them. Places that make us feel like these pictures make me feel......places where we can just BE so that we can build up the courage to make and keep brave decisions that will propel us forward in ways that are real and lasting...that will give us the courage to make REAL progress, and sit with our truth instead of our excuses. 

So here are some of the photos I took last weekend. It's amazing the little glimpses of life that you start to SEE when you are not wrapped up in the noise of life. I am still processing through all that the weekend meant to me, to my friends, to my life....who knows if I am done writing about it or not...I have a feeling that I am not. I just want to beg you to carve out some time in your life to get still. Miracles will happen....

 

Lots of fun posts to come. I am having a total blast during so much of this. I can't wait to share what is going on and all that is being accomplished in my little world. I wish you all this kind of new-ness, peace and clarity...with all of the beauty and difficulty and lessons that come along with all of it.

xoxo

melody

 

 

 

 

Facebook rehab....day 4

Today was a great day......I worked hard and spent time making art and tons of time with friends...it is amazing to me how much more time I have in the day and also how much more peaceful and present and focused I feel. It is incredible how my body is settling into the lack of over-stimulation and how it is thanking me in so many ways.

I came home from work with the intention of writing a lovely post with lovely photos and when I got home I realized that I left my laptop cord at the studio. Seems that life keeps forcing me to get unplugged. I am writing this post from my iPhone!

In the last few days we have had dinner in with friends twice...gone on walks and bike rides...I have had long face to face talks with friends...and I am seeing the world in a new way...well I am actually seeing and feeling the world instead of a screen. I am shocked at all that I have been missing out on and I will tell you more later when I am not typing all of this into my phone. I love my iPhone by the way! What an amazing piece of technology!

I feel like I have made one of the best decisions in all of my life and although I continue to feel a bit disconnected from the world....I am getting reconnected with my center....and I feel like so much of life has just been sitting here waiting for me to take notice and take hold. I see that I was living through a screen instead of really getting out and living. I see that it is going to be ok....not just ok but more spectacular than I could have imagined!!! It all sounds silly really......but I am loving this real live life........

More tomorrow...so much fun stuff to share. Just wanted to check in and let you know that if u decided to do this...you would live through it....I think you would thrive through it. I am missing knowing what the rest of the world is up to...I am missing easy and constant access to everyone I know....but when it's not all so instant and easy to do.....the conversations and face to face meetings feel so special.....

That's all for now.
Sending love
Xoxo
...melody...

I am taking a 90 day Facebook break....

Hello beautiful friends!! 

Here’s the deal. I am taking a 90 day break from Facebook. Going into a Facebook Rehab, of sorts....with all of the blessings and beauty and connection that Facebook provides, I have found for me, at this time in my life, that it has become a source of great procrastination, and confusion and distraction from doing things that I fear, and yet things that I know I am supposed to do. I feel embarrassed to tell you that I have shed 25 gallons of tears over my commitment to this decision. I have been crying for days, as I deleted Facebook from my phone on Saturday, and asked my Kim to change my password to my account on Sunday so that only she could get on to give updates. (she will give updates about important stuff and my blog will automatically post to my FB page in case you are interested)

Here's a picture that my friend, Lara snapped of my deleting Facebook from my phone....I knew I had to delete the temptation to log on from my phone...

Anyway, it is already so hard. I already feel lonely, disconnected and afraid of being forgotten by people that I already love, and people that I have grown to love so much. This is truly one of the bravest and scariest things I have ever done, or will ever do. This is why I think it is so important that I do it. I should not be relying on the internet to determine my self worth. It is time for me to face this head-on. This is the picture of me after I deleted it....I knew it was the right decision...and I feel victorious....but man, I am telling you...this is SO HARD. 

Where did this decision come from? I’m teaching a new online class in a few weeks and I as I have been writing the curriculum, I have had to be excruciatingly honest with myself. I realized that I am standing on the edge of my old life, afraid to jump into my new one. I have my hand on the doorknob of a door that when opened, will hold a room of exactly what I am supposed to do at this time in my life. Yet, I am reluctant because I am still looking back at all of the old doors that I have already closed. And....even more embarrassingly honest, I am constantly asking the outside world which door I should open, which door I should close. I am too afraid to trust my own gut on many days because the door that my heart is telling me to open  is not fancy, or big, or full of diamonds....my door is not what the world at large might tell me is the best door for me....yet I know that I know that I know that I know that it is the right door. I am getting ready to open it and step in.

My first online class was about healing, making sense of the past, finding your own truth. I wrote that curriculum from a place of experience....because I was healed myself by that curriculum...and layers and layers of me keep continuing to be healed.

This is a picture I took at last weekend's retreat at the bottom of the stairs and I realized that THAT is what I am doing....I am sitting at the bottom of the stairs...I am so much further in my healing....and doing great, but I am procrastinating the moving forward.

The next class I am teaching...part 2 of SOUL RESTORATION is about moving forward into the life you really want to live, a life you can love...and most of all...a life that YOU were designed to live. You see, I believe that...I believe each of us were designed to do things in the world that NO ONE else could ever do. I know I was designed to write and to make art. I know that I was designed to love DEEP in my relationships. I know that I was designed to learn beautiful things from hard things and then to come back and report to the class what I learned. I know I was even designed to feel a LOT of joy.....a LOT of bliss.....and a deep sense of peace and happiness. I know I was designed to live a quiet and simple life surrounded by trees and by the people who I love and who love me right back.....but the BIGGEST THING I KNOW is that I was designed to do all of this from the center of my soul. I know that I am supposed to get my answers THERE....and that the source of everything that is good and true and beautiful and will fill that center of my soul with the answers so that there will always be a deep well of them to drink from. I know that I am not supposed to search the outside world for answers about what I am supposed to do and who I am supposed to be and what my worth is in the world. I am supposed to go back to the center.....to my Soulhouse.....

You see I just returned from an amazing photography/art retreat held by my dear friend Lara Blair and my newly dear friend Elida (she is also the girl who told me for the first time, YOU WERE DESIGNED to be BE AN ARTIST...I love that...that I was designed). The retreat is called Ignite the Heart and it truly changed my life.  I was expecting to learn how to use those buttons of my camera that are not autofocus...and I was hoping to learn some more art techniques. I knew it would be incredible but I know now that my purpose there had nothing to do with photography or art techniques. I needed to get quiet. I needed to be 100% present and unplugged for many days in a row. I have now experienced the lifechanging things that happen at Brave Girl Camp for myself. Now I now why the women walk out of our retreats different and with the bravery to make huge changes in their lives...it is because they are quiet and then they hear their truth...loud and clear with no distractions. No phones, no computers, no outside voices....just the big beautiful truth coming straight from the center of their soul. 

So this is what my soul whispered, sang and even screamed a few times.

GET OFF OF FACEBOOK

SPEND THE SUMMER DOING ART!!

SPEND THE SUMMER WRITING!

SPEND THE SUMMER RE-CONNECTING WITH THE PEOPLE YOU HOLD DEAREST!!

What will I be working on this summer? TONS of art. I have been invited to do a solo art show in the Portland Oregon area in November. 11/11/11 November 11, 2011. I also have a solo show in the works for October, around my 40th birthday at one of my very favorite places in Eagle, Idaho. I have had the dream of doing a gallery showing for as long as I can remember, and this is the perfect time to do it. So I will be making a ton of original art, some of which will also be for licensing into products. I will be writing, A LOT. My goal is to start writing on my blog again at least 5x a week. My son is getting married in August and my goal is to make that an absolutely magical day for he and my beautiful new daughter in law, Jeri Lynn. My goal is to exercise every day and really think about and enjoy the food that goes into my mouth. I am going to listen to podcasts that teach me things I want to know while I exercise. I will be constantly filling my mind, heart and body with all kinds of emotional, spiritual and physical nourishment. I also still have a whole lot of stuff to heal from, as I have been going 100 miles an hour for so many years, through so much trauma...and I am going to let myself do that. I am going to cry when I want to cry, write when I want to write, laugh when I want to laugh, dance when I want to dance, paint when I want to paint. And, because I am going to do it all from the center of my soul. When I am done....I am going to beg you to try it for yourself. 

this photo of me is by Maria Simpson

While on this hiatus, I am also going to redo my personal blog, finish my personal website and work very hard on all of the dreams we have for Brave Girls Club. That is truly where my heart is.

 What I am going to do, essentially, is all of the things I will be teaching in my new online class that starts in a few weeks. You can’t teach it unless you do it, right? So I am making a brave commitment, I am hoping that I am not forgotten or left behind....I am fearing so many things and this is SO HARD, but I know I have to do it. I am going to practice and practice and practice at living the life I really want to live. No more wasting time, no more procrastinating.

I hope you will follow my journey if you want to. I will be writing each day to you....and by YOU I mean that one girl out there who might be where I am, or where I have been....and who I might be able to help or encourage in some way to stop living the life that keeps happening to you, and to start living the life that you were designed to live. I want that for you SO MUCH. I want that for me so much. So...this is DAY ONE. 

 

I love you all.........I really do.

I will miss so many of you on Facebook. Please send me emails if you want to....I will miss having daily contact with so many of you! 

xoxo

melody

 

The PROVING MY WORTH trap.....

Hello Beautiful Souls!
I wanted to share something with you that I just found in my journal from long ago...

This is a rough-earned lesson I learned a while back......thank goodness. But it is also a lesson that I often forget when I am feeling weak and powerless....when I forget my deepest wisdom and what I have learned along the way. I have a pattern of doing it....but as time goes on, I pull myself back to a place of truth faster and faster....(again, thank goodness)

...and I remember that I do not have to prove my value or my worth...and neither do you.

....and I know for sure that I have wasted many many many years trying to do it, many minutes, days, months and years......and no matter what, no matter how much I accomplished, it was just a trap...because there was always ONE MORE THING that I had to do to prove that I was valuable, and lovable, and successful, or whatever....it was never enough because there were always those dark critical voices that would come and tell me that I had to run just a little faster, look a little better, make a little more money, have a few more achievements under my belt..........it's a trap.

I had something happen this week that got me caught up in this trap again....and I had to go back and do some serious remembering...some serious questioning of all that I know to be true so that my heart wouldn't break....and coincidentally, I ran into this poem I wrote 5 or 10 years ago...when I was smack-dab in the middle of trying to prove myself.

I was exhausted...and I felt like I couldn't do one more thing. I said yes to everything and I did everything full blast. I sacrificed everything so that I could be everything to everyone. I was depleted. Over the course of many months......and because of many things that brought me to my knees...I conversed with God. Now, whether or not you believe in God, I know for sure that you have a deepest truth, and the source of it is WHERE your deepest wisdom comes from. At this point in my life, I was trying to prove my worth to God...........and one day......I sat down to write in my journal and here is the poem that came out my pen.

I hope that you can find the strength to stop running so hard that you can not even catch your breath JUST so you can prove your worth. I hope that you will only run because it brings you joy. I hope that all of the things that you do, all the days of your life, are done KNOWING your worth, and done BECAUSE you know you have so much to give BECAUSE you are so valuable...NOT so that you can somehow prove your value. I know the misery of that belief...and I also know that it is a cycle that can never be reached....because there will always be one more thing that you feel like you have to prove..........you are enough right now.

Here it is, a little conversation I had with God:

I Made You

(a poem by melody ross)

I took a stroll and then a walk
A thought at first and then a talk
I said ‘just look how fast I go”
If you watch someday you’ll know.

I walked with blisters, couldn’t quit
No rest, no strength but not there yet
I knew there was so much to learn
So much to do, His love to earn.

I picked up speed and started to run,
I raised my eyes and spoke at the sun,
You see! I’m worth it, look at me!
If I do enough, someday you’ll see.

Look, I said, I’m climbing now!
I’ll keep it up and prove somehow,
That I’m a good one, you will see,
Someday you’ll be so proud of me.

I got so tired but couldn’t stop
I had to race right to the top,
It couldn’t be so far, I knew
I had to show what I could do

Things so bleak, a trail so rough
Wanting to prove that I was enough
Beaten down and cold and shot
But, what if I waste this chance I’ve got?

I climbed, then crawled when I couldn’t walk
A thought at first and then a talk
I’ll climb until I reach the top

When I get there can I finally stop?

Who told you that you had to climb?
Who told you that you weren’t just fine?
Who told you that it must be earned?
There’s so much that you need to learn.

I loved you when you strolled and thought
You’ve always had the things you’ve sought
There’s nothing that you have to do
To prove to Me…for I Made You.

I know what you can do, you see
Just do your best and breathe and be
And stop the proving just to show
For these are things I already know.

Walk if you want and run if you choose
Climb if you must, you’ve got nothing to lose
But do it for joy , rest along the way
If you need answers, just kneel and pray

Do your best and know what’s real
Stop climbing when you can not feel
And turn and look into the sky
And watch the birds and how they fly

And know that every part of you
Was created with all that’s good and true
There’s nothing that you have to do,
To prove to Me, for I Made You.

I hope that you will give yourself the gift of telling yourself the beautiful truth and then let the pressure of perfection go.....just do your best...and recognize that YOUR best is not ANYONE else's best......all of our bests are different. We are capable of so much more than we know, but our capabilities are to bring us joy, not to prove our worth....our worth is already written in rock solid stone.

Be kind to you...tell yourself what is true and real. Don't let anyone blow your light out by telling you that you will never be enough....because you already are. We are all just on this wild journey, and we get to get up every day and do a little bit better than we did yesterday, or a lot better, but all of it should be done for the joy of it...even the difficult stuff......it can all be joyful.

I will do my very best to stop trying to prove myself, too. It is exhausting. :)

Sending so much....HAPPY MOTHERS DAY WEEKEND!

xoxo

melody

3pm Dance Party... And You're Invited!!!

WOOOHOOOO!!! Guess what we've been doing for the last month!?!?! (and guess what is a total blast???)

3pm Dance Parties!!!

We want to invite you to participate in the fun!!! (and you can be in a movie to show all of your friends and family!!!)

Here's the simple steps:
1. Send us a video of you dancing... having the time of your life... make it 2 minutes or less.

2. Grin as you think about us watching it at the Brave Girl Clubhouse, giggling and having a blast with you

3. See yourself in a montage of Brave Girls and their families dancing from all over the world!!!

4. Send your video to [email protected]

DEADLINE IS MAY 17th @9pm MST

SEE!!! It's EASY!!!!!!!
Use your camera, use your phone, use your webcam!!! Just do it!!!!!

and have a BLAST!!! Let's all join together at 3pm and show the world how to have fun!!!!

WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!
p.s. I am personally BEGGING YOU to join along!!!!!!!! I want to have fun with you! I LOVE FUN!!!

xoxo

melody