A message from the heart

What’s your life message?

I had to pick just one for my photo shoot with photographer Laurie Goodman who is coming up with a book of inspirational messages and photos of women.  Neat project.

Right away I came up with three!

One was about giving back – which was an integral part of my growing up.  My father, who dropped out of school at 14 to help support his family, was a successful businessman but he never forgot his humble beginnings.  He would always talk about having a sense of balance, meaning you had to level the scales, and if you had more, you had to give and share it with others.

It was his mantra and it probably wasn’t until he died, that I learned more fully just how much he’d helped other people.  He was a dragon, long before the “den” opened. He liked to invest and believe in people.  So my quote “All that you give into the lives of others, comes back into your own” was one option.

Then there’s the whole piece of letting go; of how we can’t control everything that happens to us in life, but we can control how we react.  Here I was thinking about my health challenges over the years, but no, that wasn’t it.

So what did I come up with?  It has a familiar ring to it – be bold, be brave, belong.  After talking it all over with Laurie – that’s the one we picked.  I like it because it refers to the future.  Mine and everyone else’s.

 I will always give back, and I have learned a lot of life lessons from the breast cancer, but being bold, brave and part of something bigger than myself is positive.  It means there are times when we have to put on our “big girl pants” and just do it.  It speaks to me and I hope it speaks to you too.

My wish is that it will encourage other women to follow their dreams.  I even wore my dream-catcher earings for the shoot.  No one else would notice, but I wanted to visually convey my message.

So have courage my friends and step boldly into your future.  Thank you Laurie for the fun experience and for the opportunity to dig deep and think about what is important to me. I encourage you all to do the same.