courage

Aim for the rocks!

At the “BraveHearted Cookie” GNO Thursday night, this incredibly strong and brave sister Regan, shared a story with all the women about one summer in college when she volunteered at a teen adventure camp. The last week of camp they set out white water rafting. She had all twelve of her kids in the raft when she saw the other boats were all flipping at a certain point in the falls. The lead guide instructed her that if she didn’t want her boat to flip she needed to get all the kids to the front of the boat, paddle hard, and aim the boat to HIT THE ROCK HARD!

It seemed counter-productive, but Regan trusted that the guide understood exactly what needed to happen.

She knew the kids in her boat. She knew they were strong enough to do it and that they would be brave enough to hit that rock hard. …

As we were planning out the weekly content for this month, based around bravery, Megan and I were brainstorming all the places women have to practice courage. As I was thinking through all of the areas of my life that require courage, “parenting” quickly bubbled to the top. It’s funny, because when the boys were younger, parenting required more endurance. Now that they’re entering their teenage years, I’m learning that love in parenting requires huge amounts of courage.

We took this picture at the beach in 2016.

The rest of the family had to leave but that year, I had a little more space in my schedule, and the boys really wanted to stay longer. So the three of us rented a tiny little car and cheap little (upstairs) motel room across the street from the water at The Sunshine Inn. We decided we would go on an “adventure”. As an Enneagram …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspiration Inspirational Women Love in Family Loving Others Motherhood Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

These two don’t look like anyone you’d want to meet in a dark alley. On a dance floor, yes! But anywhere else, you’d surely go running for the hills. This is my friend Regan Frizelle, standing with me at our HeartStories GNO 1st Birthday Bash, which we hosted 80’s Style with the help of Big D Party Rentals. The entire party was an invite for the ladies to get dressed up in their best/worst eighties garb, let their hair down, and have a great time. I was not at all surprised when this beautiful lady showed up rocking stirrup pants and a painted units top, complete with a lovely perm-on-top/straight-on-bottom mullet. It took courage.

And Regan has it, in spades.

But it’s not just the kind of courage you need to take a deep breath and jump off the high dive the first time. Regan practices a very different kind of courage consistently. …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Leaders Inspirational Women Love In Action Love in Friendship Loving Others The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

Let’s start by acknowledging the awful botch-job quality of this photo collage. I know, it’s terrible.

It’s on purpose.

Yesterday Scott sent me a link to the video below and I laughed hysterically, from a deeply painful, yet wise place. I don’t know all the psychology behind why we laugh at video bloopers of other people’s pain, but the one that makes the most sense to me around this one is what Dr. William F. Fry, psychiatrist explains in the the science of laughter that, “play frame” puts a real-life event in a non-serious context that prompts an unusual psychological reaction. In this case, my visceral reaction was so strong that I stopped what I was doing and shared the video in our mastermind group. It was like I needed to know that I wasn’t the only one.

And of course, I wasn’t.

The image on the left is from our last GNO, two lovely …

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

I love the way life often gives you exactly what you need for the moment, in the most unexpected ways. . . if only you’re paying attention.

As we’re working on decorating our home, I’ve been reading articles about design lately, more than ever in my life. While I was recently reading an article about trends for 2019, (which in truth, is so opposite of my nature – reference yesterday’s post) I noticed a term I hadn’t heard before. At least I hadn’t noticed it before. The writer was referring to a design style called “wabi-sabi”, which is apparently “on trend” for 2019. The reference photo didn’t seem to have a particular style I could name. In my lack of understanding, I just kept reading, without much more thought. Until, the very next day, this quote image came blaring across my screen.

“wabi-sabi” (Japanese)

(n.) a concept, an aesthetic, …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspiration Inspirational Women Love In Action Loving Others Loving Yourself Our Story Priorities Purpose Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

If you live in Frisco, you’ve might have seen this bright orange van around. It’s a hard to miss. Covered in enormous cameras, antennas, and other unidentified gadgets, it reads “Self-Driving Vehicle” on all sides. The first time I saw it coming towards me, I freaked out just a bit and steered to the opposite side of the road, for a measure of safety. But as it neared me, I noticed there was actually a driver inside. Whew.

That startled me for a minute.

As I’ve seen them more often, I shared conversations with friends about what’s going on in there. Word on the street is that they actually are self-driving. Some have only passengers and others have a drive.ai employee along for the ride. Even if there is someone sitting in the driver’s seat, they are not actually driving the car. The car IS drivable. They could drive if it went …

by Crystal Gornto Inspiration Inspirational Leaders Inspirational Women Inspirational Words Love In Action Loving Others Priorities The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

Aim for the rocks!

Courage looks different in every season

Who’s standing beside you?

What it really looks like to get back up

We need your wabi-sabi

Both the self-driving car, and the driver