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

“When we get to the end of our lives together, the house we had, the cars we drove, the things we possessed won’t matter. What will matter, is that I had you, and you had me.” ~ Unknown Let’s be honest. My life’s been an adventure. From the moment I was born, l was handed a passport and a suitcase full of wacky and whimsical shenanigans. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t off on an escapade somewhere or juggling uncertainty. Sure, I was born a free-spirit, but I was also raised to question everything, explore the outlands and venture out past the limit signs. While I was growing up my parents seemed to be restless souls to me with a little bit of gypsy in their hearts, traveling all around the world together.   Now I gotta tell y'all within seconds of taking my first breath, mama and daddy welcomed their baby girl into what was a small, but inclusive adventurers club. After all, adventure was out there. And if it was calling our names, you can bet we were go...

“It’s better to look back on life and say: ’I can’t believe I did that. Than to look back and say: I wish I did that” ~ Unknown Have I ever told y'all I love to cook? Probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise really. I’m all about creative energy and I love getting creative in the kitchen. Next to writing, cooking soothes my soul. I’ve always been a creative soul. Can’t argue this. Cooking just became part of the process I suppose. I loved hearing the sound of pots and pans clinking in the kitchen. As a little girl I’d drop whatever I was doing at the time and come running. My daddy was probably a bit more adventurous than my mama. He’d let me take over, concocting whatever creation my heart desired. And he’d eat it too. Brave soul, really. Pretty daring back in the day, honestly. I mean I was known as the destroyer of cakes not to mention I added heat, as in the spicy kind, to oatmeal and ketchup to my, tacos. Well, nothing’s really changed there. I still eat ke...

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.” ~ Thomas Jefferson A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… OK. Stop. Maybe my story doesn’t actually start so far away. As for a long time ago...well this part is probably fairly accurate. If we were going back in time the year would be 1977. I was just 4 years old. The far, far away part, well you could say it's about as close to being factual as possible. After all, we were living quite a long distance from home at the time. In fact, when Star Wars, A New Hope premiered my dad was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. Which was some 5,232 miles from Texas to be precise. I remember waiting in a line a mile long it seemed, on post to see this new marvel they were calling Star Wars. I took in every scene holding my breath watching Luke Skywalker, Hans Solo and Princess Leia rise up against the Empire. I was completely taken with the whole idea of a lost son becoming a Jedi. I was torn though. My imagination was a complete...

“Some journeys take us far from home. Some adventures lead us to our destiny.” ~ C.S. Lewis When I was in the third grade my mama and I began reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. It was the second  book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Truthfully,  I was more than a little enthusiastic about the prospect of stepping into Lucy’s wardrobe. It was the summer of my eighth birthday to be precise. And it was the year I stepped into Aslan’s land, a place called Narnia. I held onto every word, every night as my mother read to me just before bed. Our adventures were never complete without a goodnight kiss and a promise there’d be more to come the following night. I’d drift off to the sound of mama's voice dreaming of brave knights, heroes and courage. I loved every minute of the C. S. Lewis' book series from the Magician's Nephew to The Last Battle... I  was fascinated. The artful and brilliant storytelling of C.S. Lewis captivated me. I imagin...

"Hope is not born on mountain tops, but in valleys when you're looking up to the heights and peaks that you're yet to climb."  ~ Susanna April I don't know about you, but I'm a mountain climber. Now let's not read too much into that. I'm not speaking of climbing an actual mountain like Everest. I'm adventurous enough to say back in my college years I was known to climb up and repel down a few in the Mountain state. But on a serious note, what I'm really talking about are the mental, spiritual and emotional mountains we face. These mountains I know well. These mountains can be dark, dangerous and down right scary but in the midst of any ascent or descent, I've learned this: "Tell your mountain about your God.' Mountains can be beautiful as much as they are treacherous. They can offer us refuge and still cause us pain. The thing I know about life is it's filled with both valley's and mountaintops. You have to go...

Life is a funny thing. Nothing is guaranteed and nothing is completely safe. We can try and predict all we want but we cannot fully anticipate life’s twists and turns. Life is beautiful this way. Everything can fall apart only to be revealed as stained glass once broken and restored. Memories they too can be tricky. Just like our emotions they can become fuzzy, blurred, vague, unclear and distorted. I’ve heard it said before a picture says a thousand words. Memories are in many ways like a photograph. When we invision a moment in our thoughts sometimes those memories aren’t as beautiful or as horrible as we imagine. It’s when we actually look at a memory captured on film we can see the truth revealed. Our faces and our eyes they don’t lie. Happiness, love and joy or even hurt, sadness and anger speak for us. In those photographs our unsaid words are captured.  I know for my family, we’ve had many more happy memories than sad. The problem is sometimes those sad, hurtful mem...