Soul Restoration Blog Hop

Hopefully, you arrived here from Trisha's blog.  If you've somehow landed here towards the back half of the Soul Restoration Blog hop, you can start from the beginning by clicking here.  And just to share a little love, I'll be drawing two, yes two random numbers from all the love you leave for one of my glass tile "brave" pendants.  You have to leave some love, and I have to be able to contact you. 
This is not going to be an easy post to write, and I'm turning my internal editor off (though spell check remains active!)  Y'all know I took part in the incredible Melody Ross (and company) online workshop "Soul Restoration"-- and that I won my place in the course through the also incredible Christy Tomlinson's blog.   The workshop is a guided journey into our psyches through creative journalling and semi-structured projects.  I'm not going to say more about the content of the course... for that info:  “Join us for the powerful and fun online workshops taught by Melody Ross that are being enjoyed and loved by women all over the world! Soul Restoration on-line classes - Now expanded to TWO sessions: Soul Restoration Part 1 – Finding Your Truth (6 weeks) April 5, 2011 Session: $99 – Register HERE and Soul Restoration Part 2 – Living Your Truth (6 weeks) For graduates of Soul Restoration 1 only June 7, 2011 Session: $99 – Register HERE” .  What I want to tell you, and I don't really want to tell you, but I need to tell you, is that inside the most amazing woman (and this is true for men, too, but c'mon now, this is geared for women only right now) you have ever met lives another person who is sometimes afraid, who sometimes hurts, who has days when she cannot face herself in the mirror or does not recognise the woman she sees there.  Inside the most amazing woman you have met lives a girl just like the one inside of you and me.  And inside the most rotten woman you have ever met lives a girl like yours or mine.  I've never been an easy girl... My brother says of me: “Even when you were two, we could stand you at a fork in the road and say ‘this is the easy way, this is the hard way’ and you’d hitch up your diapers and toddle off down the hard road.” I HAVE to learn by getting my hands and heart dirty. . I wanted to participate in Soul Restoration because I believe. I believe that we all have wings, that we all have a story to tell, that in each of us there is an answer to a lesson that someone else desperately needs to learn. I believe that we are unique amazing creatures and that for most of us, being unique and amazing is an impossibly daunting task for which we learn to hate ourselves and hide our hearts.   I believe that thinking we know how things are going to work out is probably the worst thing we can do-- we don't know.  I see the world from such an interesting little place that when I share what I believe or what I know about the way things work, people give me a funny look... sometimes it's the "oh my gods, why didn't I think of that?" look, but usually it's the "whatareya freakin' crazy?" look.  I've lived a lot of life in my forty-two years and the hardest part about being unique and amazing is that when you really open yourself up, you let all kinds of things in... and some things really hurt.  And the more often we hurt, the less likely we are to remain open.  No one is as careful with your soul as you are... and yet the desire to share ourselves with others continually puts us in the position of letting others affect how we think... and the longer we think some thing, the more actual it seems.   My experience with Soul Restoration took me back to the quiet places where I could hear that voice inside again very clearly and listen to the things that are important.   The Soul Restoration "process" encourages you to share with the other participants and gain support from them.  I really enjoyed talking with others about the things that "get in our way".   I re-learned that just because you think you have something to say doesn't mean you say it.  I made friends and was inspired by more unique and amazing women than I expected to find.  I challenged myself to accomplish things that will make my world feel closer to the ideas I have about life.   I healed some history and found my words again...
Soul Restoration gave me a chance to meet some incredible women, and forge some friendships that I was desperately needing in my life.  It gave me my voice again, for, oh, about the tenth time in my 42 years and it reminded me to do some of the simplest things... share what I know, listen with my heart, live with my eyes wide open, and enjoy the journey, even when it's yucky.   Those of you here who did this with me, thank you.  Those of you here because you know someone who did this, thanks for stopping by...

In you lives a girl who already has the whole world in her heart... if you forgot her or lost her along the way, I can't recommend Soul Restoration 1 enough.
Now, remember, leave some love, and then go visit Shelley to continue on with the hop!

make something beautiful with your heart and your hands
Kaere