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

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien When I look back on my life, on the clock ticking away one minute at a time I'm left breathless. We all know the sun goes down, the moon comes up and the stars come out. It's the cycle of our lives but realizing how all those days and nights add up is pretty astonishing. Counting up my life span so far, as of February 26, 2017 my clock comes to 523 months, 2278 weeks, 15,947 days, 382,728 hours, 22,963,680 minutes, 1,377,820,800 seconds give or take a digit or two. That's startling actually if you think about it. Now think about this, something Henry David Thoreau once said, "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." So I guess my question is this, what are we willing to exchange for the life we live, with the time we have? As a little girl I held on to my daddy's hand and to his every word. As he still does, my dad hung the moon,

"There is no reset button in life.You can't take anything back and you can't undo anything. All of your actions have consequences, and the things you say and do today will have a lasting impact on the rest of your life. You have to understand that, and you have to be aware of it while making you own decisions." ~ Anonymous The power of our choices, good, bad or somewhere in-between have the ability to shape our future, our entire lives really. Being indecisive, is a decision, a choice. Going left, moving right are also choices. When I graduated college I had so many choices to make, deciding which direction I would take. Of course my parents had their ideas, all parents do and I had a few of my own. Some didn't pan out, while others led me to the happiness of my life now. I was scared, venturing out on my own. Becoming an adult, pursuing my education, a career, my dreams and making choices that would affect the rest of my life. You could say I have always

"There is no beauty without strangeness." ~ Edgar Allan Poe Anyone who knows me can't deny I'm a different kind of girl, a different cup of tea, always have been, always will be. I was born in the south, the daughter of a southern gentleman and a Philly girl. Yes, seriously I'm the kind of girl who wishes "it was socially acceptable to wear beautiful corset dresses or wizarding cloaks every day." I'm just weird that way I guess. I love the Ren Fest, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel and DC comics, Sci-fi, Lord of the Rings, Disney and the list goes on. I was born during the silver age of comic books. The Flash, Captain America and Wonder Woman are dear to my heart in ways you probably wouldn't understand and may honestly think are crazy. To me, being a comic book nerd is just normal. I am absolutely a bit of geek with a hint of nerd and a southern accent mixed in if you want to get technical about it. And you know what, I'm perfect

"Extended family is a wondrous thing because their love and influence is a choice." ~Christina Olachia Our family has been blessed many times over by an extensive extended family. Through the years, as close as we were to our family, those bound to us by blood we were also separated by hundreds of miles more often than not. This is where we learned ,"home is wherever our bunch of crazies are." The wonderful thing about growing up in an environment like I did was even as an only child, I was never lonely. I was in fact surrounded by unbelievable and generous brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and second moms and dads. Today many of those same folks are still part of our lives, entwined and defined simply as family. In fact many of these extended family members are not only an extension but an intricate part of who we are, who I am today. It's been said, "Family isn't always blood. It's the people in your life who want you in theirs; accept

"Today I decided to forgive you. Not because you apologized, or because you acknowledged the pain that you caused me,but because my soul deserves peace." ~ Najwa Zebian Forgiveness is not something that comes easy. In fact forgetting can be just as hard. Beginning again, well to accomplish this we have to be ready and willing to leave our baggage behind at the train station, ALL of it . That ain't easy is it? I don't know about you but I know myself,  and walking away gracefully isn't always in my demeanor nor part of my disposition. I may be graceful, but I'm a southern woman. No one pushes around a southern woman, that's for certain. The other thing about a southern woman, good or bad is she has the uncanny ability to put you in your place with a smile on her face and a gleam in her eyes all while words of sugar drip from her lips. Now the truth is my emotions get the best of me sometimes and my tongue too. But let me make this very clear I&

"When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower." ~Alexander Den Heijer Today there is no escaping a'more. As we begin this day, no matter where we go we'll be faced with cards proclaiming love, flowers scenting the air and hearts full of candy. All these things are truly lovely, but they are in truth just things, trinkets. None of which can actually cause true love to grow or bloom. Valentine's Day, with all it's romantic glory is just like any other day. Nothing about today can make us love each other any more or less. The growth or the withering of our relationships isn't dependent upon the antics of one single day of the year. Nope the environment we cultivate our relationships in on a daily basis does. The growth of our connections are dependent upon our deliberate actions the rest of the 364 days of the year. How does love grow? How do we keep relationships alive in an environment overrun by tec

"Even though there are days I wish I could change some things that happened in the past, there's a reason the rear view mirror is so small and the windshield is so big, where you're headed is much more important than what you've left behind." ~ D.I. Quotes Three years ago this month my life changed. Actually my life went up in smoke. Uncontrollable flames reached epic heights and the smoke of what was left of my life up to that point billowed. I'm not talking some small campfire either, not even a bonfire. No, I'm talking about a raging, out of control wildfire, burning and destroying everything in it's path. This sweeping fire consumed everything, all of me, who I was and who I thought I should be. Three years later, the fire has been extinguished. Truth, for a time there I was fighting hot spots spontaneously re-igniting, area's of my life left unattended. I was lost, hurt, betrayed and abandoned. Night had fallen, the sky was black, I

"Mom and Dad, I cannot begin to describe how BLESSED I am to have amazing parents in my life. Seeing true love through you both makes my heart happy. As your daughter, I see perfection in both of you. I love you." ~ Anonymous My Mom and Dad met in May of 1968 and married just 9 months later on February 8, 1969. Today my parents celebrate 48 years of marriage as husband and wife. For almost 5 decades my folks have built a life together, cultivated a family and been an example to so many of what true timeless love is. Growing up as my parents daughter I not only felt un-conditional love but I saw it in practice, in everyday life. I watched my parents, listened to them and felt their constant encouragement. I not only saw their love flourish through both good and bad times, I felt their love each and every day of my life, seeing it in continuous motion. To say my parents have endured trial by fire is an understatement. To say they have overcome does not begin to exp

"Oh how she loved to be home." ~ Anonymous Home, there is no other place like it is there? Home is a place we feel a connection, a special attachment to and find a feeling of closeness and belonging as we come through the door. Home is where we let our hair down, toss our shoes off and kick our feet up. So what thoughts comes to your mind when you think of home?  For me home is the place my heart dwells, a place of comfort, warmth, refuge and retreat. Maybe you live in a house, an apartment or even something more exotic like a bungalow. The thing about home, is it doesn't matter what kind of dwelling we reside in. What matters is the ones we share it with. Home for me has always been a place I've felt safe, loved and welcome in. Growing up the daughter of a soldier we moved a lot. Some of our houses were small while others were quite large but they were always home. As beautifully said by Mother Teresa, "Love begins by taking care of the closest ones -th