This is Beth, Sunny, Angela and Megan. Along with Heather, Natalie, Madison, Ashley and Shelly (not pictured) these fabulous ladies are the ones making beautiful things happen at the HeartStories GNO. I would say, “I can’t imagine life without them”. But the truth is, I actually can. I remember life without them.
I’m overwhelmingly grateful as a result.
I remember our very first girls night, in April of 2016. It consisted of my sister Kim planning the menu, the two of us shopping endlessly at Costco, and her working her fingers to the bone in our neighborhood clubhouse kitchen for hours on end. The table cloths were pieces of muslin fabric I cut to size. The flowers where wisteria from outside my bathroom window mixed rosemary Holly collected from her back yard. My friend Carly, of Tribe Alive, was our guinea pig, as the first featured guest and business highlight. I hired my babysitter to run check-in and help me with sound. That GNO, and every one to follow, has been a mix of friends, family, and new acquaintances, all willing to pitch in, blood sweat and tears, to make it happen.
I’m so grateful to them all.
These women who currently make up Team HeartStories are forever a part of my HeartStory. This last week, when things went haywire on event day, I was running late and stressed out on arrival. I can’t even describe the joy that overcame me when I stepped onto the scene to see that these girls had EVERYTHING covered. They were peaceful, happy and calm. They were smiling and ready to love our attendees, big.
If you’re a corporate event planner, that’s probably par for the course.
If you’re me, and you’ve been in lean start-up mode for 5 years, it’s life-changing. It’s a giant sigh of relief. It’s everything. It was of course, no coincidence, that earlier in the day I heard Oprah and Brené Brown talking about cultivating joy. Oprah summed it up by saying, “There is no joy without gratitude.”
There is no joy without gratitude.
Our deepest joy is often birth from our deepest pain and struggle. No one wants the struggle, but without it, it’s difficult to grasp the depth of our bounty. That knowledge doesn’t make the struggle easier. It’s still going to be tough.
It makes the struggle worth it.
If you’re in the middle of a struggle today, hold on. Keep going. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know if you’ll allow it, the struggle will make you grateful. Things will eventually turn around if you keep holding on. And when you remember where you’ve been, you can’t help but be grateful for where you are.
Gratitude produces joy that is so much deeper than an easy path ever could.
Wherever you are, remember gratitude today.
to more love,
Crystal
