Wanted: Your Brave Stories
My heart craves your stories of kindness, honesty, and truth-telling (essential nourishment in times of worry and fear).
Dear Brave Soul: 🫀That moment your throat tightens, your hands shake, but you speak up anyway? That's what we're here to celebrate. In my second year on Substack, I'm creating a space for our collective acts of everyday courage, from the heart - and I need your voice.
🌟 Show us what small acts of bravery look and feel like.
That time I stood up to...
The day I gave up something hard…
The moment I trusted myself to…
That turning point when I let myself feel…
The blessed hour someone lifted me with…
The week I said f*ck it and finally tried…
The day I claimed my value, and…
That time I didn’t think I could survive, but…
If any of these spark an idea, please reply or comment. Say hi. Introduce yourself. Let it simmer if you like. But don’t let too many practical demands steal your brave creative energy.
📝 How To Share Your Story
Please have a look around and subscribe for weekly stories, songs, and support for your Brave Creative Voice. While my following isn't huge (yet), I trust our authentic stories to lift each other up - because we go further together.
Reach out with your idea or short essay (up to 800 words). I’m also open to a poem, song, visual piece, video, or we can do an interview. Let’s explore what works.
Here’s a prompt to organize your story into vital bits.
You don’t have to follow this exact sequence, but it gives a sense of what I’m after:
Begin with 3 precise, sensory details about time and place. Sunset? Kitchen table? At work? What can you touch, smell, see, or hear? What are you doing? Feeling?
What does your character (you?) want most in this moment?
What’s the obstacle? What stands in your way? Inner or outer? (Confusion, conflicting desires, a bully, etc.) How does it feel to face this?
What’s the catalyst? What changes? What opens up? Inside or outside?
What (mostly) brave action do you (or others) take? How does it feel?
How do you feel after?
💗 My Brave Moment (a short example from today)
As I write this on my laptop, sipping homemade chai, I see a sparkling Salish Sea sunrise through the big rosy windows in my office. Yet I still feel shitty.
My heart yearns to invite you to share your stories. So this space becomes less about me and more about you. So we can support each other as we share our true voices.
But I am confused, unclear, and overwhelmed about how to craft it best. Now I’m Ms. Grumpypants who snaps at her partner. I step outside to sing and walk, my daily gratitude ritual. But the messy feelings stay with me. I’m not doing it right. Why can’t I finish this effing post?
I take a moment to ask my soul, aka my higher self, what’s up? She reveals my old, underlying fears and beliefs. I’m (asking) too much. You won’t respond. I will be alone.
My heart softens with recognition and love for the little one in me who was left alone and felt abandoned. Who believed it was her fault. That something’s wrong with her.
I hold her in my heart and breathe deeply: Ahhh… I affirm that all is well, in this moment, with the sun glinting on the Salish Sea. I finish this post with more trust. I trust this longing for you and your stories. Because Mostly Brave is brave enough.
🎁 Resources For Your Brave Voice
Choose a tool from my online deck of playful, 5-minute creative practices to feed your inner strength (don’t miss videos of my ridiculous alter ego, Queen Poopicina, sharing the Holy Sh*t! version of the deck). Share with friends who like both playful and deep.
🗣️ Thank you for being (Mostly) Brave. I look forward to your ideas!
💗 When you like, comment, subscribe, or share with a friend, you help more of us feel braver in these troubling times. I leave you with a song for our sponsor, the Earth:
More to come, with Big Love,
A multi-passionate former creative director, my work has appeared in Time Magazine, feature films and television, newspapers, YA fantasy novels, and on stages. My creative tool decks are used in therapy offices and bathrooms across the USA 💩 More at HeartsQuest.com. 💗