courage

Just me, just you

This is Shakari, she was a fangirl for a minute. We met last week while I conducting our first “official” site visit at the new Cut! by Cinemark movie theater, where we’re hosting the Chick Flick GNO. We were there measuring all the spaces, talking to all the people, and of course, taking all the pictures. As soon as we finished a quick video, we noticed Shakari taking our picture like she thought I was someone famous. Instantly seeing what was going on, Vanessa offered to take a photo of us together.

I ran back behind the bar, hugged her, and we had a good laugh before Vanessa snapped this photo.

Shakari is awesome, and I hope she ends up working our event with us. She instigated a good moment for me because we’ve been having a lot of internal conversations of late, about me stepping out to be more “the face” …

As we’re approaching the third birthday of the HeartStories Girls Night Out, I’ve been looking through old photographs of the 36 GNO’s we’ve hosted in the past. This pic is from our very first GNO Birthday celebration. In June of 2017, we celebrated 80’s style, at our “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” party down at Big D Party Rentals warehouse. There are SO many hilarious and fun pictures of that incredible night, thanks to Meggie Taylor Photography. (If you need a good laugh, you can see the rest of them right here) We played 80’s arcade games, made friendship pins, laughed, danced, and ate a giant birthday cake.

It was really quite the party!

But when I look back, one of my favorite things about that party was seeing all the women who showed up so courageously dressed in their 80’s get-ups. It turns out that once you hit a certain …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Loving Others Loving Yourself Our Story Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life 1 comment chat

It’s been a few days (maybe a whole week!) since we met here on the blog. I’m citing the image above from Vanessa Corral, of all the lovely ladies from our Confident Spring Style Fashion show, as the evidence of my “hall pass”. (kidding, not kidding) Pulling off a fashion show at that level, as one of our regularly scheduled events was, in every way, more than we could actually handle. It was a wild, hair-brained idea on my part. Just picture me as Thanos, saying “I am inevitable!” and snapping his fingers. . . if you saw Endgame, you know what happened next. (If not, you’re not missing much. #boys)

Of course, I do not think for one second that I am inevitable.

But this time, I had this wonderful vision, that would typically take a team three to four times the size of ours, eight months to a year …

by Crystal Gornto Community Fashion Friday Girl's Night Out Inspirational Leaders Inspirational Women Love In Action Love in Friendship Our Story The Journey Through Life Leave a comment chat

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. …

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

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

Just me, just you

Courage to grow up

You with us?

Aim for the rocks!

Courage looks different in every season

Who’s standing beside you?