courage

She did it anyway

I’ll never forget the first moment I remember meeting Vanessa. She was sitting in the front row during our “Bravehearted Cookie GNO”. The entire night was about courage, in the face of fear. Yes, we made cookies, but we did it while we heard Christie Halverson share her story about going from baking cookies out of her kitchen for friends to opening up her first storefront Cookie Rack in Frisco.

Vanessa was so brave that night.

The question to hold for the night is “What is calling you to be brave in your life right now?” We shared a behind-the-scenes clip from The Greatest Showman, we read the Theodore Roosevelt (Man in the Arena) quote, and of course, we quoted Queen B:

“The idea that you’re either brave or afraid is a lie. The truth is that most of us are both brave and afraid at the exact same time.” ~ Brené Brown.

I …

I can’t even begin to describe how much I’ve learned since starting HeartStories in 2012 (officially 2013). I was in it for what I could do to help others, but sitting here, looking back, it’s been almost seven years of the most intense season of growth of my life. And I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon. I live in a constant state of walking in the unknown.

Nothing is sure to work.

Every risky choice I make is made from layers of experience, seeking wise counsel, praying earnestly, and then simply deciding it’s worth it to jump. Merely choosing to do the next right thing. Sometimes that process turns out beautifully, even better than I could have hoped. But it also often leads to painful lessons, challenges, and struggles I didn’t see coming. IT’s the essence of the John Ortberg quote that you’ve surely heard me say a million times. I still …

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

Sometimes, at the end of a Girls Night Out (like the one we’re heading into TONIGHT) full of laughter, fun, connection . . . and a lot of hard work behind the scenes, I get to sneak into a photograph with the one who is always behind the camera photographing the rest of us. And apparently, this is the face I decide to make? I’m not sure if it was an “Oh my gosh, we got Vanessa in a photo!” type of face or a “Hey look Ma, I made it!” face. Either way, after it was all over, I was feeling something strong about being in a photo with Vanessa Corral. It could just be that Vanessa makes me feel strong.

She makes me feel brave and courageous.

We had a chat yesterday about our “shot list” plan for tonight’s photography during the Football 101 GNO. I’m always a little nervous to …

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

I opened up my Facebook newsfeed this morning to get an image for today’s blog (from the HeartStories photo albums of our Girls Night Out events) the first thing I saw was this quote from John Acuff:

“Be brave enough to be bad at something new.”

It was like an arrow to the soul because it’s so true. Trying something new is difficult, precisely because you’ll absolutely be bad at it at first. None of us enjoy being bad at anything. And certainly not in public. I’ve been really bad at almost everything I’ve tried with running HeartStories, and most of it has been “in public” and so you’d think it would be easier now, but it’s not. Not really. I’m crystal clear about why I do it now, so I insist on finding the courage. But the fear of failure runs so deep for most of us.

It’s never easy to begin.

That’s …

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

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” …

by Crystal Gornto Girl's Night Out Inspirational Women Love In Action Loving Others Loving Yourself Roadblocks in Life The Journey Through Life 2 comments chat

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

She did it anyway

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