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

  “Your mistakes don’t define your character. It’s what you choose to do after you have made the mistake that makes all the difference.” ~ Dave Williamson If my life was a montage in a film, you’d probably be surprised by the bloopers reel. And when I say bloopers, I mean gigantic, enormous, colossal epic fails. My life is full of them. Quite regularly too. I’m an ordinary, everyday run of the mill, clumsy, muck it up, fish out of water. If there’s a way to mess it up, I’ll find it. Kinda like those Pinterest fails. Yep, that’s me. I start out with good intentions and suddenly the whole thing goes sideways before I know what’s happened.  So, let's get this out in the open right away. I’m about as flawed as they come. I don't have any superpowers. Well, that is unless you’re counting my ability to put my foot in my mouth or trip over my own feet. Then I have some rather amazing, dynamic and extremely high-powered capabilities.  Not that my whole life is amuck, all the time...

  “Freedom is not about the size of your cage or the power of your wings or the non-attachment to a person or a thing. Freedom is about being so truly, madly and deeply attached to your own soul that you can’t bear – if only for a moment – a life that doesn’t honor it.” ~ Andrea Balt    Maybe it’s the fact I’m growing older. Or maybe I’ve just gained some accidental wisdom with my older age. Who knows exactly how or why? It’s an age-old question. Did the chicken come before the egg or the egg before the chicken?  Pun intended, either way, I’ve aged. I’m gray-haired with multiple lines showing across my face. I’m not the vulnerable young woman I was once.  But I’m not yet past my prime. Though I’m absolutely not a spring chicken anymore either.  I don’t know when it happened. But it did. One day I woke up and everything was different. My hands had creases. My red hair wasn't so red anymore. My eyes didn’t glimmer quite as much as they used to. And yes, I fel...

  “There are moments in our lives where we find ourselves at a crossroad, afraid, confused, without a roadmap. The choices we make in those moments can define the rest of our days.” ~Unknown  Life can change in an instant. One single decision, on any given day, in one direction or another, at just one solitary crossroad can change everything. And I mean everything!  The decisions we make in these moments can rewrite our history...erase and erode truth and reality. Every memory, every moment and every possibility for the rest of our lives can be gone in a split second if we’re not careful.  You can lose it all in just the blink of an eye. Your home, health, job, and yes, even your family.  And if you think it takes a lot for any of that to happen, you’d be wrong. It doesn’t take much. One tiny break in your foundation can split your whole world apart. Add assumptions, a breakdown in communication, misunderstood intentions, misrepresented sincerity, deafening sile...

                        Sometimes we put up roadblocks, shutting down all the easy roads to us. I know I've been there a time or two myself. It’s easier to close ourselves off than deal with the noise and commotion around us. It’s not that we’re ignoring the havoc or don’t see the chaos. We simply need silence. I know when life hands me lemons I need to slow down and be still. But mostly I just need time to figure it all out. So, the barriers go up. I steal myself away until I’m ready to make lemonade.  Truthfully, it takes time to get yourself right. To sort it all out and accept where you are. That’s the key though really. Accept then act. None of us should force things. It only leads to more upheaval. Nothing happens overnight. And the art of making a great pitcher of sweet lemony goodness starts out with a bunch of sour lemons.   Hurt and pain don’t just wash away. Happiness just doesn’t show up and...

“Fear has two meanings: Forget everything and RUN or face everything and RISE. The choice is yours.” ~Zig Ziglar  Life’s challenging. There's no sugarcoating it. I know I’m oversimplifying it, aren’t I? One day everything’s right as rain and the next? Well, let's just say, that same steady, comforting rain suddenly becomes a torrential downpour. Truth is everything about life is demanding. There’s no way around it. Life challenges us every step of the way and it rarely, if ever lets up. Even on the good days, we’re aware change is on the horizon. Really think about it. From the moment we take our first breath life confronts us with change and opposition. Like it or not, life is a crash course in the mastery of interference, difference and transformation.  And the truth is, change is necessary. Sure, we can resist it all we want but this is the thing. Change will always get its way... one way or another. Transformation happens. Can’t get around it. Change transf...

"Trust that an ending is followed by a beginning." ~ Unknown Ya it sucks, but keep calm. It's not the end of the world! How many times have you heard that one? But honestly isn't it some pretty good advice? If we react to everything life topples down on us, then we'd never get out from under anything. We'd always be digging ourselves out of a mess or running around like Chicken Little, warning the sky is falling continually. Now that said, life can get out of hand and absolutely feel like the world is ending. Life just has this way of crashing down suddenly, without notice and sending you your very own dancing Chicken Little. It's not the fear inside us that messes us up but what we do with Mr. Little's echo , "the sky is falling." It's our own version of the chicken dance which ultimately defines each and every particular chapter in our story. I think we tend to forget we have a choice in how we respond and react to adversity ...

"Don't be troubled because of the mountain tops you have yet to touch. Like a tree, you will grow, not from the sky, but from the ground up."  ~ Morgan Harper Nichols As a little girl I knew I was different. It wasn't that I was prettier, smarter, talented  or more important than anyone else because the truth is I wasn't. I was pretty ordinary is what I was. And I was pretty much a hot mess too.  I struggled with math, self- confidence and my reflection in the mirror. I never saw myself as anything but less than ordinary. I was different but only because I didn't follow the stereotypes of the time. I swam upstream rather than downstream. I laughed too hard, sneezed too dainty and imagined a little too big for most people I knew. I was a nerd, a comic book geek and a type 1 diabetic. Life for  me was anything but normal and I stood out only because I was an oddball. From the time I can remember I have fought back, pushing life as hard as it pus...

"If you want to find the right road, follow many paths, be willing to try new things and don't be afraid to change the direction along the way. Leave your doors open."  ~ Anonymous It's unbelievable for me to fathom today my baby turns 18. Today he officially becomes an adult, a man in the world's eyes but in mine he will always be my baby boy.  Seriously eighteen years ago today I gave birth to our second born. I had no idea then how fast time would fly, and how much this little baby would change our lives forever. How could I know our Micah would challenge me to think so far outside the box or how he would inspire courage within myself in ways I never dreamed? And yet he has, over and over again. From early on we knew our son was authentic, genuine, the real deal and most definitely divergent. We saw his life, his direction moving towards a much less traveled path. Micah was not different, he was his own person, unique and contradictory in every wa...

"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...

If I have learned one thing in my 41 years it’s this, life is full of uncertainty. From one day to the next life can and will take different turns. Life can bring good news one day and sorrow the next. Our joy is not linked to uncertainty or in the fear and worry of a sudden detour life maps into our route. Joy is a certainty despite the fears surrounding us. I sometimes think we tend to confuse happiness with joy. We are not guaranteed happiness. Why, well happiness is a feeling, joy on the other hand is something deeper, it’s something we chose in our circumstances, good or bad. We can run around like Chicken Little yelling the sky is falling, be a woe is me kind of person, blaming everyone else for our predicament and allow a curve ball to destroy us or we can take a deep breath, and let the pieces fall where they will. Everything sorts itself out eventually. The reality is we do have the ability to walk with confidence even when life has gone haywire. It all comes down to ...

  “(C) by www.martin-liebermann.de” You may buy prints or posters from zeitspuren.deviantart.com Kind regards Martin Liebermann license@martin-liebermann.de http://www.martin-liebermann.de How many times have you thought to yourself as someone asked how you were doing, “It’s a crazy life, if you only knew?” Life under most circumstances is trying at best. As journey men or woman on this road moving forward, sometimes backwards and many times than I like to admit turning sideways we have to learn to adapt quickly. Our character really begins to define us during those sideway turns in life don’t they? Perseverance is not necessarily an easy thing to hold on to, dodging life’s curve balls from every direction as challenge come at us from each side yet the truth is challenges are part of life, working through the downright discouraging, tough, and endless situations life brings our way. What can we gain from these detours in life? Well, we can learn to care, to show kindn...