Brave Heart, Brave Soul. She who is brave is free.

It's crazy how quickly time flies! Just yesterday Joshua was turning 8 now he’s 18. How is it possible that was 10 years ago? Life was so much simpler back then it seemed. Johnny and I were still babies ourselves, the boys were holding on to 1 digit birthdays and thirty was a novelty. The early 2000’s was also long before words like breast cancer, autism or traumatic brain injury became a staple in in the Olachia household. Now some 10 years later we are preparing for Joshua to graduate high school, Micah is half way through the 10 th grade and Johnny and I are well past 40. It’s unbelievable how you just blink and life has suddenly raced ahead of you. Life has a way of moving forward whether you are ready or not. I’ve learned in my 40 plus years, you can’t hold it back and you can’t predict anything life has to offer or where it will ultimately take you, all you can do is buckle up and hold on. Life lesson #19: Raising boys to men… Life doesn’t come with a manual. It tak...

If you’ve ever taken a drive through the back roads of Texas, you know how beautiful it can be. You also know you’ll find yourself alone with your thoughts down our country roads. There’s not much playing on the radio but you are sure to find a country song without much trouble. That’s where I found myself recently, on the back roads, singing to the radio, listening to Texas country, lost in my thoughts. Personally, what I love about country music is the fabric, how it mirrors real life, the way you can find your own story in the grains no matter where you’re from. If you listen closely you’ll find yourself in a country song. I found my story down an old dirt road, passing through numerous county roads while the radio played on. It's actually quite beautiful how you can find and lose yourself in country music, deep within the many layers of its uncomplicated storytelling. And if you so happen to be driving down an old dirt road listening to the radio you can bet it will both s...

How do you define yourself? Is it how others see you, successful, beautiful or educated? Maybe it’s how you see yourself, overweight, struggling to pay the bills or always trying to keep up with the Jones’ next door?  It saddens me how many of us fall into this trap, defining who we think we are without really knowing who we are.  This year, 2015, is about being myself, knowing myself and being happy with who I am, not what I am.   Most, if not all of 2014 was spent finding myself, who I really was, not who I or for that matter anyone else thought I should be. Discovery can be exciting and challenging as it can be painful. For me, the exploration was worth the loss. I’m done with walking on eggshells or cow toeing to a definition of an idea of myself which has no merit! Personally, I am a wife, a mother, a lover, a daughter, an only child, a niece, a cousin, an aunt, a daughter and sister in law, a friend, a breast cancer survivor, a writer, a Christian, and a m...

So I'm told it’s a new year, out with the old and in with the new right? It’s the end of one year and the beginning of another, the closing of 2014 and the onward march into 2015. The promise of new opportunities, new experiences and more life lessons as the New Year begins. I don't know about you but I'm ready for whatever 2015 has to throw at me. Don't get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m willing to throw myself to the front line of difficulty but if that is where I land, I'll batter up.  My outlook is simple; life is not meant to be lived on the sidelines. Grudges have to be let go off, wrongs forgiven, hurts completely forgotten if peace is to set sail in any new year. Life lesson # 16; The New Year brings both positive and negative experiences and opportunities. If you pay close enough attention, the opportunities to reinvent yourself are endless; the choice in who you become is yours.  This year our family rang in the New Year with a family style part...