Friends! Thank you for finding your way here today. It feels surreal to imagine other people taking time out of their busy, chaotic life to read my words. I hope I never lose track of just how cool that is. Thank you.
In my last post I expressed how my writing came to be, and today I want to be more specific in telling you about this particular space. Why a blog of all things?! I’ve been sitting with this thought and this dream for a few months now and it all boils down to two things: courage and connection. Oddly those two words have shown up in various capacities over and over again during the last two years. If you’re a personal friend or if you came to know my story through Molly’s Caring Bridge page you won’t be at all surprised by the courage piece. Bravery is an everyday word in our house. And oftentimes bravery and courage show up in similar ways for me. (This is something I will dig into much deeper when I share the story about how my site got its name. So even if you aren’t at all familiar with my story I promise to catch you up soon.) The connection piece caught me off guard initially. Once I began exploring it and seeing how it shows up in my life it all made complete sense though.
I am an enthusiastic believer in storytelling. Whether it is children’s books, classic literature, podcasts, blogs, conversation…storytelling is everything. It is how we ourselves connect internally and grow, how we connect to each other, and how we form connections with our world. Whether we realize it or not we are all living out our own stories while also interacting with, analyzing, and sharing stories around us. We don’t usually put much thought into this. It is a pretty passive activity most of the time. But when we do pause to really listen and observe the stories are often so beautiful they take our breath away. The connections are so deep and so rich we walk away feeling more grounded, more supported, more whole, and more human.
Unfortunately we don’t live in a world that makes it particularly easy or comfortable to share your story. In fact, we, especially as women, are convinced our stories don’t really matter. But a life of quietly keeping your story to yourself is lonely. It can feel so empty. And it doesn’t matter how many wonderfully lovely people are surrounding us at any given moment if we aren’t connected to ourselves and them.
So I suppose that is what this is. This is our soft landing spot. This is a space where story, especially your story, is always welcome. This is a place where you can show up and know you will be received and held. In exchange for you taking the time to show up and support me I promise you honesty, authenticity, and vulnerability. I chose a blog format as a means for facilitating community. I want to share my life and my story with you. I want to form connections internally and share them with you. I want to connect with you. I want to help you make connections within your own heart and life. And the only way for me to do that, to share and to show up consistently, is with a shit ton of courage. Writing is easy for me. Sharing my writing makes me want to puke. And yet it feels important and necessary. So I am going to breathe some major life into my own brave. I am going to cling to my value of courage and do what I can to make this space meaningful.
It is no accident that at the beginning of February I listened to Brene Brown’s podcast, Unlocking Us. She had an episode on Living into our Values. She suggested filling out a worksheet on her website. Want to take a guess at the two values I kept circling back to? The two that I found all of my other values could be categorized under and organized around? If you guessed Courage and Connection then you’re smarter than I am because it took me way too long to get there. But again, that is where I landed. Under courage falls authenticity and accountability and curiosity and openness and hope…Under connection I find compassion and curiosity and justice and family and vulnerability…somehow taking this inventory and seeing it on paper in front of me solidified even more my desire and my need for this exact space.
I hope you can feel my excitement as you read my words because I am busting. I have not been this excited about a project maybe ever. This feels right and true. This feels like me. And it feels so darn good.
So, what can you expect from me? My plan is to post to the blog twice a week. That seems like an easy and achievable goal. The posts will be everything from journaling and heart stuff to parenting to mental health to home decor to fashion and beauty. I am calling this a lifestyle blog because I intend to share my life. Quite simply, this space will be me and my story.
Additionally, I hope to send out a newsletter every month. Join the email list by entering your info on the homepage. This will be short and sweet. There will be small recaps of the weekly posts and links to them if you missed them. But it’ll also be a reminder to pause and take a deep breath every single week. A small moment to connect. You can sign up to receive my little weekly love letter by….(add specific website navigation)
Lastly, I will be showing up everyday that I can on Instagram (@abigbravelife). This will be the best spot to see the ins and outs and daily bits. This will be a lot more of the random nonsense sharing. You’ll see activities I do for my kids, daily routines, in the moment ramblings and processing, the items I’m saving in all my online shopping carts, and random tips and tricks. This will be a significantly less polished version of me and my writing but it will be equally as honest and authentic. Promise. It will also be the easiest way for us to connect with each other in real time.
*I feel like I need to give a disclaimer that I am so not a techy person, so I can almost guarantee some of this will hit snags along the way. But maybe that’s just the perfectionist in me silently wanting to beg you all for grace as I figure all this out.
Thank you all again for taking time to meet me here. Thank you for letting me share my story in little bits and pieces with you. I cannot wait to connect with you.
Be brave. Be you. Be human.
With so much love and gratitude,
Am
*Originally published March 2022 and republished July 2023