In this episode I share my experience of dancing with shame and melding into a flow that was free of striving to make it something it wasn't.  It was painful.  It was awkward.  It was lonely but I didn't feel alone.  Did I mention that all this happened in the presence of Brene Brown herself, the Queen of Shame research and resilience.

On the other side of this messy shame struggle I opened my heart to the healing process of remembering WHO I AM.  

One of the many takeaways. My playing small does not serve anyone - not myself, not you and most certainly not the world.  It's actually the opposite.  When I rise into my beauty and power, I inspire other women to do the same.  That means one thing.  Time to build a bigger effin stage so we can all rise together and share our collective courage with the world.   

Find a comfortable spot, push play and settle in.  

My head doesn't understand but my heart knows.  

Her name was never mentioned. Her photo was never seen. Her story was never told. It was as if she never existed. Stripped of her life force, her truth had been silenced.

Then one day she mysteriously came to me and said, "Use your voice to tell our story".  The story of our shared shame and our shared hiding.  She knew that shining a light on our truth was the healing elixir needed to unite our hearts and set us free.

Idella Dixon Gray is my Great Great Grandmother and she was Native American. Most likely from the Cherokee Nation.

Idella Dixon Gray, I am blessed to be your granddaughter and I promise to honor your past by sharing your special kind of wisdom with the world.

This story isn’t about politics.  This is a story about how life is our teacher, and the messenger in this instance just happened to be the 2016 election.

In this sharing, I hope you can sense a sister whose protective shield around her heart was cracked open, exposing the depth of her humanity that lived within. A place where wisdom was hidden underneath her pain and self-love was resting in the courage to turn toward herself. 

The invitation, if you choose to accept it…

Can we move beyond the debate of “right and wrong” and connect with one another through the vulnerability and beauty of our shared humanity?