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You, are a queen

I didn’t grow up loving fresh-cut flower arrangements.  In fact, I’ve always mostly thought they were a poor choice for a gift because they die so quickly and they make more work for the receiver who has to water them and care for them.

That is until I met florist, Lauren Sorden of Blue Posy Floral Design.

You think I’m kidding or exaggerating, but I’m not.  For our first six months, to one year of HeartStories Girls Night Out, I would cut wildflowers and drop them in little Edison bulb vases on each of the tables. Voila!  We had flowers! But when Kelly Simants temporarily joined the team to elevate the entire experience, my wildflower dreams quickly transformed into the fresh-cut professional floral arrangements.  They were stunning, but I knew they weren’t sustainable without a long-term floral partner.

That’s when I met Lauren. 

Not only did she begin creating stunning displays for Girls Night …

by Crystal Gornto Community Girl's Night Out Inspiration Inspirational Women Love in Friendship Leave a comment chat
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Give us Galentines or give us death!

Does Valentine’s day sometimes feel like an over-commercialized, forced attempt to celebrate a holiday for lovers? 

The tradition started simply because Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales, decreed the February feast of St. Valentinus to the mating of birds (because English birds paired off to produce eggs in February).  This led to nature-minded European nobility sending love notes during bird-mating season and eventually lovers everywhere began celebrating love on Feb. 14.  Industrialization has increased expectations with mass-produced cards, gifts, flowers, and chocolates. Nonetheless, the idea of celebrating Valentine’s Day has become second-nature as we shower the ones we love with declarations of love and that’s certainly not a bad thing.

But today on February 13th, we celebrate a newer (and more fun) tradition called Galentine’s Day!

Galentines Day is a celebration of female friendship.  February 13th is the day women across the world celebrate female friendship! Women, both single and in relationships, use the …

by Crystal Gornto Community Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Love in Friendship The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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When it rains . . .

This is a moment of behind-the-scenes truth being told.

We had wildly different plans for our Galentines Sip & Stroll GNO.  It wasn’t supposed to be a Sip ‘n Stroll at all.  It was supposed to be a “Galentine’s Pamper Party”.  We had all the fun plans for how it was going down.  Until, at the last minute, the week of Christmas, with a house full of guests, I found out about an unexpected change that upset the entire apple cart.  Suddenly we needed a new location to host our giant pamper party.  You know the saying.

When it rains . . . it pours.

In moments like these, I try to practice breathing deeply and remembering that every problem has a solution.  It may look very different than the solution I was expecting, but every problem has a solution . . . as long as I’m open to discovering it.  It will …

by Crystal Gornto Female Social Entrepreneurs Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Love in Friendship Loving Others Our Story Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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Showing up matters

It’s been a rough week it’s been on so many of our hearts. I’m not even a sports fan, unless my kids are playing. Kobe Bryant wasn’t on my radar.  Though he was a legend, he wouldn’t even have ranked in 10,000 people I was thinking about going into the weekend.

But oh, what a difference a day makes.

His passing in such a tragic event, while being an engaged parent, seemed to stop the heartbeat of the world momentarily.  It felt like a sucker punch in the gut to sports fans and parents near and far.  It’s been such a heavy few days, even for me, until a random moment with Noah, we just happened to catch the quick clip of Elle Duncan, a sportscaster on ESPN (at about minute 1:20) offering a tribute to Kobe’s life.  Through tears, she shared:

“I suppose that the only small source of comfort for me …

by Crystal Gornto Community Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Inspirational Words Love In Action Love in Friendship Loving Others Motherhood Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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The reliable path to maturity

I got a chance to sit with a friend the other day who has endured some serious pain in her recent past and it doesn’t appear that it will be easing up anytime soon.  There are parts of her story I can relate to, but most of it is well beyond my scope of experience.  If I could intervene and wave a magic wand to fix it all, I would do it in a heartbeat, even it cost me dearly.  I would pay the price to make it go away for her.  But I cannot.

There’s not one single thing I can do to make it better.

As I listened to her story I had to silence the fixer-upper voice in my head trying to fill in all the gaps with wisdom and experience.  I could feel her pain across the table and I SO desperately wanted to take it away so …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Love in Friendship Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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The Journey to Joy

While I was working at a summer camp in college, there was a rule that if the counselors wanted to “play on the lake” they could only go out to do that at the crack of dawn before the campers woke up.  So we’d often meet at the dock in our swimsuits and quietly back the boat out of the slip.  We’d slowly make our way out of the camp cove and into the middle of the lake.  Then we’d ski, tube, and generally laugh and cut up. 

It was the best way to get in the mood to start a full day of work with kiddos.  

I’ll never forget one specific day, I went out with a group of female counselors.  After we’d been skiing, we decided to pull off into a cove to hook up the tube.  While we were there someone (it was probably me, but I honestly …

by Crystal Gornto Inspiration Love In Action Loving Yourself Our Story Priorities Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat
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