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Sometimes we complicate things when they really are quite simple. Sometimes the answer to a problem, or the answer to a prayer is so very sweet and small and simple that we just can not believe that it could be true....(read more)
Usually what's simple is true, beautiful girl.
xoxo
{This is an excerpt from The Brave Girls Club “a little birdie told me – daily truth”. Click to read this entire truth or to subscribe to receive Daily Truths in your email inbox.}
I have not forgotten what depression feels like. I have not forgotten what it feels like to feel stuck and lost and trapped. I have not forgotten what it feels like to feel like a complete failure, beyond recovery...I have not forgotten how it feels to feel unloved and unlovable...and I have not forgotten what it feels like to feel utterly forgotten. I can still taste it....
A few days ago, I was standing on a mountain with my husband and some of our friends....in the wilderness with a huge campfire roaring next to us. One of our friends was playing the bagpipes and it was echoing through the trees, it was right at sundown so the sun was orange and yellow and filtering through the forest. I looked over at my husband and he looked at me...and I had this moment of utter bliss thinking about how far we have come, an the hell we have walked through to get here.
So...the last few weeks, I have had to stop and wonder how on earth life could feel so good, so peaceful, so happy, so fun and so on track. Because....it hasn’t always been like this...in fact...not sure I have EVER felt this at peace...and good. And it has lasted long enough that I finally trust that it’s not just a little phase I am going through. I just want to share with you HOW I got to this place...especially if you are stuck somewhere....if you are stuck because you are so tired of fighting all the time to just survive...if you are so tired from years of feeling trapped doing things that make your heart feel bad....if you don’t really even remember what you wanted at one time because you are so far off track from who you really are, what you really love, and what you feel like your purpose was at one time. If you have no idea what you want so you just take whatever comes...and then you don’t even feel worthy of that. I just want to share with you what I have learned...because I KNOW that you can be as happy and at peace as I am feeling...(finally)....and if you are willing to do the work...there’s this amazing life waiting for you....a life that was always intended for you, because I know for sure that we were not created to feel bad...we were created to live a joyful life. I am so happy for the things I have finally learned. (and the cool thing is...it is based on simple things...not EASY things, but very simple things)
I had a long stretch of time (years long) feeling a deep down anger that I didn’t know how to express. I have only now realized that the root of my feeling horrible, hopeless and lost was anger, an anger that was rooted in fear. I am not naturally an angry person.....but I think anger is a human part of us that has messages that just want to be heard. I was not listening or accepting my anger. I just kept stuffing it deeper and deeper and dealing with it by over-working, over-exercising and pretending like I really wasn’t angry at all. I felt like if I did “ENOUGH”...achieving, producing, working....that maybe I would feel better. I didn’t know that it was anger that was fueling the way I felt STUCK, TRAPPED and HOPELESS. I felt used up....like my best years were over....I felt like things were so far gone that I could never recover what I felt had been lost. I was too tired to fight anymore...because my life felt like it just turned into one big long stretched out lump of time where the #1 goal was to survive the day, then the long & tortured night....day after day after day and night after night after night. That is the only goal I had for those years....to survive.
That is no way to live....but that is what happens when you have lost hope and forgotten your dreams...and life has beaten you to a pulp...and the blaming, accusing, mean lies have invaded and destroyed everything in your heart and soul that you thought you knew....and when you have forgotten the truth of WHO YOU ARE and WHAT IS POSSIBLE...and WHAT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED for your life.
So many of us forget. We MUST do what it takes to remember. Do you hear me, friends? PLEASE. Please don’t believe that life always has to be this way...that this is the best it is going to get...that your best years are over.
What I want you to know is that I was angry during that time because I believe in God. I believe that God has a plan for all of us, and I believe that He truly truly truly wants every single one of us to be happy. I don’t talk a lot about God, because I want everyone to feel comfortable and understood and respected. I think truth is truth is truth in the world...and love and beauty are truth and that’s usually what I stick to.....and I sincerely apologize if I am making you uncomfortable or offending you...because I also have great respect for all beliefs, religions and ways of being in the world. But from my heart, what I know to be true is that there is a very loving God who knows each of us, cell by cell, moment by moment...He knows our personalities, our desires, He knows about our mistakes...He knows about our pain. He knows what we are each individually capable of what we are working toward. He knows and has a plan....and He just wants us to trust Him.
Well, I tell you this because I want you to understand the anger I spoke of above. My anger was directed at God for the most part. I was very very very very very angry at God. For years...and years and years and years and years....I was angry that my life could be in such a horrible state and that He could allow that to keep happening....I was angry and confused and felt forgotten...and I never stopped believing in Him...I just spent a lot of time in my closet, car, garage....in hotel rooms on business trips...anywhere I found myself alone....crying LOUD and pleading, pleading, pleading....sometimes yelling...always through lots of tears and gritted teeth...sometimes looking straight up into the sky and screaming.....telling Him I thought He was mean and cruel.....telling Him that He had the power to fix the things that were terrorizing me, hurting me and devastating my life and my family. All along the way, no matter how angry I was, no matter how loud I yelled...the answer I always got back in my heart was “STAY WITH ME....someday this will all make sense.” Of course, that would make me even angrier. I would cry and scream that HOW COULD ANY OF THIS EVER HAVE ANY GOOD PURPOSE...EVER?????
I am writing this because one of my online classes starts up again tomorrow...and I had decided that I wanted to find a way to tell you about how that class changed my life, and to plead with you to at least look into it and join me for the rest of 2011 to do the work to move forward and find the miracles that can happen in your life if you do this class and really do the work to start living the life you REALLY want to live. I had not intended to get this personal....but some things you can just not leave out......and this part, I can not leave out...because I KNOW there are women out there who are angry from the deepest part of their beautiful hearts. ANGER from not understanding how life could be so cruel, and beat us up so much....and pile more and more and more and more of it onto us...........and even if things are better...we are left so tired, ragged and without an ounce of confidence, drive or memory of our dreams. We are stuck. YOU are who I am talking to...and YOU are who I am begging to join me on this course.....
So...I will finish telling you what I wanted to tell you.
My life burned to ashes a few years back. It was slow and painful and much of it seemed very cruel to me as I said above. When all was said and done, all that was left were the few people who had been there all along....and the stories and the lessons that were learned along the way. This was painful, I didn’t think I could survive it.........but man it was so good, too. 
What it gave me was the opportunity to start over and really decide what kind of life I really wanted to live....how I wanted to spend my minutes....how I wanted to feel....what I wanted to accomplish....what I wanted to learn....what I was willing to sacrifice...what I was NOT willing to sacrifice. What kind of people I wanted to spend time with, and what kind of people I needed to avoid spending time with..........what I wanted to live for, what I wanted to be known for....how I wanted to give in the world, WHAT I wanted to give in the world.....the kind of place I wanted to live....what I wanted to spend my time thinking about.....what I wanted to see and experience.....how I wanted to love others....how I wanted to take care of my body....what I wanted to allow into my life....how I could protect myself from everything I didn’t want to ever be in my life again....
What kind of life did I REALLY WANT...even though I was so far away from it?
AS SOON AS I REMEMBERED that I have a choice about ALL of those things....everything started to change. I stopped settling for what life handed me and I started deciding what I wanted life to be. And again....once I REALLY asked my heart...it was lots of little things...simple things........sadly, I had spent so much time chasing after all of the big things that I really didn’t even want.
My friends. I love my life. I LOVE IT. I. LOVE. IT. A few years ago, I never ever ever ever ever thought I would say that again. Things were too hard, too bleak. We were in so far over our heads and there were just too many scars that weren’t healing. Things still didn’t make any kind of sense....and I was still too angry. 
I am not angry anymore....but it took a lot of years to get here. I AM BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND that I could never ever ever be where I am NOW had I not traveled through the places that I had to travel to get here. I could have stayed stuck in those places and not had the hope to move forward......and I did for a LONG TIME. I chose to stay stuck because I did not have the strength or energy to try to remember where I wanted to go, what I wanted, what would bring the most peace to me and to my family....I just let life keep happening.
That is not what God wanted for me or for my family.....He wanted me to remember that I get to decide....that YOU get to decide...that we all get to decide....but that we HAVE TO DECIDE......or life WILL keep happening to us.
As I type this out, I can hear clanking dishes and laughter in the background. My friends are here packing up our rental house so that we can move across town into the exact kind of home that our family wants to live in. I wrote it all out a while back, as part of Soul Restoration 2.....still at the time feeling that it was not possible because our life was in such a deep hole......but here we are.....and by tonight I will be sleeping in a home that is surrounded by trees, private and near water........a simple beautiful house that is what WE want.....we just had to decide and do the work to get there.
Since doing the lessons in Soul Restoration 2, SO MUCH of my life has changed...I have even lost 20 lbs because the craziness is gone...and my body feels calm...and I feel happy with what I am doing....once I gave up the COOL WHIP DIET (and that all happened because of SR2).....everything changed for me.
I am TRULY TRULY TRULY living the life I want to live. Funny thing is...I thought it would take 5 years to get here from the time I started writing stuff down...every day I get closer and closer and closer.....and I say NO to things that don’t fit in with what I want, and I say YES to things that scare me but will get me closer to what I do want....what I want for myself, what I want for my family...AND...the very life that has always been intended for me. 
I am starting to understand the pain, the struggle...what felt like a cruel joke for so long...and how it has gotten me exactly where I needed/wanted/was supposed to be. I’m so glad I stuck with it.
I just want this for YOU....more than anything in the world. I want you to feel this peace, this feeling of being on track...this OKness with exactly who I am, how I want to live my life, who I want to be around, what I want to do and how I want to feel.
I WANT YOU TO FEEL EMPOWERED ENOUGH TO DECIDE.
Anyway.....class starts tomorrow...you can jump in any time.....here are a few little videos explaining the class......I REALLY HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US. CLICK HERE to sign up!!!
Sending SO MUCH LOVE
melody
Despite the best planning, the most diligent working, and the very best intentions, some days just don't go at all like we hope for them to go. Sometimes weeks go like this, sometimes months. We do all that we feel we are supposed to do yet things go a different way than we had planned, than we had hoped, than we had expected. What are we to do?
Well, we just keep going....(read more)
xoxo
{This is an excerpt from The Brave Girls Club “a little birdie told me – daily truth”. Click to read this entire truth or to subscribe to receive Daily Truths in your email inbox.}
Sometimes the pieces of us get a little bit mixed up and we have to let ourselves fall apart so that we can get ourselves back in order.
And it's ok to grieve over things that we've lost. It's ok to grieve over people that we've lost and it's ok to grieve over time that has been lost. It's ok to feel a bit of a hole in our hearts where loved things used to be...(read more)
xoxo
{This is an excerpt from The Brave Girls Club “a little birdie told me – daily truth”. Click to read this entire truth or to subscribe to receive Daily Truths in your email inbox.}
When making tough decisions, you will never regret making the decision that brings the most peace to your heart. Sometimes it doesn't bring the most peace to your LIFE in the short term, but if it is what brings the most peace to your heart, that's the place to go. Always go where the peace is...(read more)
Seek peace, sweet girl.
xoxo
{This is an excerpt from The Brave Girls Club “a little birdie told me – daily truth”. Click to read this entire truth or to subscribe to receive Daily Truths in your email inbox.}
Just like we are told on an airplane before a flight, before reaching out to help another we must have our own oxygen masks on. It is not taking anything away from anyone else when we take some time each day to catch our breath, recharge, restore and remember...(read more)
{This is an excerpt from The Brave Girls Club “a little birdie told me – daily truth”. Click to read this entire truth or to subscribe to receive Daily Truths in your email inbox.}
This month is INSANELY busy and we want to keep you updated on what is going on so you don’t miss out on anything, and so that we don’t miss out on YOU!! That is the purpose for this little note...:) And, we always love the chance to connect with all of you. We are working on MANY big things right now for all of you...some of them we can’t tell you about yet...but here are some that we can!
So here goes.....just 10 quick things...
1. We absolutely LOVE each and every one of you and we can not believe the growth of Brave Girls Club over the last few months...it is because of all of you and we are so happy that you see the vision of this wonderful community that we all get to be a part of...thank you for allowing us to be a part of it! We feel incredibly fortunate EVERY DAY!
2. Kathy and I just got back from Minneapolis and had a BLAST meeting everyone at The Creative Connection event, where I spoke on 3 panels and we taught 2 classes...and hugged SO MANY OF YOU and were overall inspired, wowed and delighted. We LOVE meeting you face to face and I loved the opportunities that I had to speak about Brave Girls Club and making your dreams come true! Here's the embarrassing part...we hardly took ANY photos...I had really good intentions and even took photos on the plane (yes, I am reading a spy novel...my favorite)...took photos of the limo driver they sent to fetch us....took a few pictures from the hotel....I got a few photos on my phone of the 70 beauties who came to our classes....they made such beautiful things!!! I got a few photos with a few of my old friends who gave AMAZING keynote speeches, Stacy Julian and Becky Higgins....you gotta see Becky's recap movie of the event HERE (you'll see tons of people you love and admire I bet and you will totally see why I love Beck yso much!).....anyway....once I have some more photos from the event photographer I will tell you more for sure because there is SO MUCH MORE TO TELL and so many more people to tell you about....we were just running and running and running....can't wait to see what the event photographer captured!!!!
3. October Brave Girl Camp is in 2 weeks and we are SO EXCITED and getting everything ready for the beauties who will be arriving in Idaho to be with us...we can’t wait and we wish you all could be here with us! We spend lots of time in the weeks before camp sewing, cooking, putting gifts together, wrapping, tying and packing....so that’s where we’ve been and where we will be for the next few weeks! Our October camps are our anniversary camps....we had our very first Brave Girl Camp in October of 2009! Click HERE to read what I wrote 2 years ago about our first camp. In some ways I can't believe it's already been 2 years...in others, it feels like we have been doing this all of our lives...in ALL WAYS it feels like this is EXACTLY where we are supposed to be.
4. Soul Restoration 2 is about to start up again....I am writing a blog post about how it changed my life, and continues to change my life. I BEG you to at least look into it...watch the videos...read the testimonials...we would sure LOVE to have you!!! I promise you that it will be one of the BEST THINGS you have ever done for yourself. Don’t forget we are doing a big tuition giveaway to 11 lucky ladies HERE!
5. We are working hard to get Life Art A La Carte up and going and...We have a huge surprise we are working on, something you have begged for over and over again that will be ready in time for Christmas gift giving...and we are sure you will want to give it to every woman you love. It will be beautiful, meaningful and collectable...can’t wait to tell you SOON! Save up some of your pennies, you will want to buy a bundle of them!
6. We are in shock and awe that THIS POST on our blog from a while back has been read over 100,000 times in the last month, and spread all over the world, so we hope you will take time to read it and pass it on if you would like to!!!
7. In the middle of all of this craziness, I am in the middle of a new & brave little undertaking, that comes as a result of keeping a promise to my husband, I have gotten so many letters about this after I posted it on my personal blog....you might want to read about it HERE...I can’t wait to tell you all about it when it is over.
8. Kathy rocks!!!!!!! (I am writing this post so I get to say that....) There is so much that goes on behind the scenes that you might not ever see...that gets done with such tremendous love and care. (and hours and hours of time) We have both been so busy this month and she just takes the reins and goes. She is the glue that holds this place together...her calm, organized, confident and brave soul is a gift. She is a tremendous leader. I could never do any of this without her as my partner. We can't wait to share a WHOLE LOT OF FUN AND HAPPINESS AND GIFTS with you in October for our big 2 year anniversary party online!
9. I will be writing the rest of the FACEBOOK ADDICTION posts very soon. You can catch up on them HERE I have so much more to tell you about it and with the hundreds of letters I have gotten, I promise I will tell you everything I learned and give you lots of tips to overcome some of the stuff I have overcome because of my Facebook Detox.
10. I just want to share something I am SO HAPPY ABOUT...a dream come true. Our family moved last month to a temporary home to wait for the home to be ready that we were wishing for...WE ARE MOVING INTO IT right after BGC.....so that’s where I have been...moving, moving, moving....moving forward!......we are settling down and can’t wait to tell you all about the beautiful, magical secret forest that we are moving to just in time for my 40th birthday that is going to be a HUGE part of the future of Brave Girls Club. AMAZING THINGS COMING UP.....
will be back soon!!
Sending you all SO MUCH LOVE!
xoxo
melody
Look around at what exists in your life right now, beautiful friend. Look at the events that had to be orchestrated to get you to exactly where you are, doing exactly what you are doing, with exactly who you are with, learning exactly what you are learning and experiencing exactly what you are experiencing.
Look at all of this and know that it was meant just for you. If it feels like you are in a place that you would rather not be at this time, just know that you are in the middle....on the way from here to there.....and that you will get through it...that it will last exactly as long as it's supposed to last and teach you exactly what you are meant to learn. And later, you will see how this time was one of your very greatest teachers...(read more)
xoxo
{This is an excerpt from The Brave Girls Club “a little birdie told me – daily truth”. Click to read this entire truth or to subscribe to receive Daily Truths in your email inbox.}
Please don't get caught up in thinking, beautiful girl, that your dreams, hopes and ambitions don't matter, that your ideas are dumb or unattainable. Please remember that pretty much everything you put to use on a daily basis came about because someone had an idea and followed through on it. What if they hadn't have followed through on it? What if they had been too afraid? THINK OF ALL OF THE THINGS that we would all be missing out on right now if the ideas of others never had a chance to be born....(read more)
Let your ideas be born, friend.
If it feels like it's time, it probably is.
xoxo
{This is an excerpt from The Brave Girls Club “a little birdie told me – daily truth”. Click to read this entire truth or to subscribe to receive Daily Truths in your email inbox.}
The only way to get to the truth is to listen to your heart, to pay very close attention to your gut. It is YOUR truth. And that does not mean it is the same truth for someone else's life. We all have a different journey. When something is right and true, it feels peaceful. Things that are right and true are not always the answers that we are hoping for. They are not always the easiest answers. But they always always always bring us to a place of peace.
Please go where the peace is, beautiful friend -- always always always...(more)
{This is an excerpt from The Brave Girls Club “a little birdie told me – daily truth”. Click to read this entire truth or to subscribe to receive Daily Truths in your email inbox.
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