Taking a “Life Pause” to attend Brave Girls Camp!
You know when you’re reading in one of your favorite magazines about a place far away and think to yourself, “Wow, I wish I could go there!”? Well, I did that and I went! After discovering Brave Girls Camp in the Where Women Create magazine, I immediately went to their website to learn more. What I found were two sisters, Kathy & Melody, with a dream to share their art, kindness and wisdom of taking care of ourselves and taking care of “sisterhood”. What a breath of fresh air!
It was a pleasant surprise to find out you can partake in the life enrichment they have to offer, not only as a trip to camp, but with the ease of online classes. I signed up for Soul Restoration and have been hooked ever since.
As a person who is constantly on the go, chasing another dream and starting yet another adventure, the online classes allow me to just take a “pause” from life to reflect on where I’ve been and prioritize where it is I really want to go. With all the busyness of life, I think we all could benefit with more meaningful “life pauses”. The beauty of Brave Girls Club online classes is that you can take your “pause” on whatever day of the week, or time of day, your life allows you to do so.
Now, I have to admit, even though I love the treasure hunt at Hobby Lobby & Michael’s, gathering all the basic supplies to work on my art journals, I rarely get every thing done that comes with these beautiful curriculum packets. So I rely on my old JGSD motto, “Sometimes it’s better to Just Get Something Done, than to get it all done!” It is so rewarding to just take the “life pause” and time for reflection, that I usually don’t mind if my journals don’t end up as full and pretty as Melody’s!
Which leads me to going to camp…
Thanks to a friend who was kind and generous to nominate me for a Leadership experience, I was blessed with the opportunity to go to the amazing Brave Ranch outside of Boise, Idaho for Brave Girls Camp! I went with 3 simple goals in mind;
To meet new, brave & talented women.
To follow my inner compass to make some business decisions with my entrepreneurial journey.
To actually complete an art project in the glorious setting of the “turquoise art barn”.
It would truly take a book writing, not a blog post, to adequately describe the magic of Brave Girls Camp. But, I will begin here and revisit this topic again in the future.
The shuttle from the airport took me directly to the Hilton Garden Inn in Eagle, Idaho. I was so grateful to have flown in a day early when I found to my delight, the Boise River and trickling side stream flowing right behind our hotel. I remember thinking, “Wow, those people at Brave Girls Club know how to set the mood for a personal retreat and I haven’t even made it to the ranch yet!” I walked a couple of blocks to the local grocery store and bought a $10 lawn chair and spent the rest of the day with my toes in the sand, reading, journaling and taking pictures around that peaceful stream.
The next day, we were greeted by “Brave Lynette” who came bearing gifts with an abundance of goodies in our personalized camp bags! Now I had visited with Lynette on the phone prior to coming to camp so I had already experienced her joy and positivity, but this brave girl is truly a ray of sunshine and I knew right away how much fun we were going to have.
As we boarded the Brave Bus for camp, our bus driver greeted each of us by name! Wow again! I hope I am capable of the same by the end of the week. When the bus drove down the lane into camp, Melody, Kathy and the rest of the Brave staff were jumping up and down, waving, smiling and making us already feel like they’ve been waiting their whole lives for us to get there!
My expectations of Brave Girls Camp were far exceeded as we all shared our stories, laughed, cried, sang songs, made beautiful art, ate amazing meals and bonded with one another in a unique sisterhood. Brave Girls Camp is a place to just show up and be yourself and everything else just falls into place around you. Kathy and Melody each have special talents and wisdom they share with the group throughout the week, which brings everyone together in a very authentic way and I LOVED THAT!
Did I meet my goals? Indeed I did! I have many new brave friends that support each other daily on our facebook page. I completed my own artistic book of Connie’s Truth Cards and very happily created a Brave Girls Hat for my hat collection! Also, the quiet journaling time reinforced within me all that I am grateful for and that my compass is definitely directing me to extend my journey as a Gallup StrengthsFinder Coach, to help others live their own authentic lives relying on their natural talents. I’ll post a few pictures here of things I’ve mentioned and more in the gallery. Thank you to all the new Brave Girls in my life for being so kind, caring and fun! The time at camp with all of you was a wonderful “life pause” and now I’m ready to carry on!
For anyone wanting to learn more about Brave Girls Club (or Camp) please visit; www.BraveGirlsClub.com
My new Brave Girl friends!