Cheryl Hale - Girl Be Brave: 100 Days to Chart Your Course

CHERYL HALE

GIRL BE BRAVE

100 DAYS TO CHART YOUR COURSE

Copyright 2019 by Cherylann Hale Quinnelly

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, TN, 37228-1306 or emailed to .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data has been requested.

ISBN 978-1-5018-8540-2

Cover and interior design by Dexterity.

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MANUFACTURED IN THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA

THIS BOOK IS

dedicated

TO ALL OF THOSE WHO ARE ASPIRING

to be brave.

I find these words powerful, and not just because my grandmother wrote them to my mother. They are special because Ive never heard truer words in my life.

My grandmother, Frances, had a difficult life. She grew up in the rural South during the Great Depression. Her mother died when she was a toddler. Her father, unable to raise her alone, sent her to live with her grandmother. Frances dropped out of school at a young age and married young, just like so many women in her generation.

She adored her husband, Ed, and for a while, their life was going well. They had five children, four rowdy boys and my mom, the tagalong.

Ed left Frances in the 1950s. This was a time when women had few rights and no social structure existed to support single mothers. The older children, now grown, moved out to begin lives of their own. This left Frances and my mother to do their best to meet their basic needs. They struggled.

I was very close to Frances growing up, and my memories of her are vivid. I remember, when I was about eight years old, I was laying at the foot of her bed while she rocked in her chair in front of an open window. There was a gentle breeze and the faint sound of the gospel song Ill Fly Away playing in the background. Frances was reading her Bible with a magnifying glass. The image of her sitting there is burned into my memory. She was a woman of faith and perseverance. Id like to think I have a little bit of her in me. Looking back at her old black-and-white photos, I can see the woman of defiant determination and courage that left such a huge mark on my life.

Fast forward to 2016. My mother was battling breast cancer. During the holidays, we had a family gathering, and I had the idea that we should read Frances Bible.

In the back pages of my grandmothers Bible was a handwritten letter to her estranged husband and their children. In her southern, broken English, she pleaded with them to settle down and live decent lives. She wanted them to be the best version of themselves. The very last line of the heart-wrenching letter was to my mom, girl be brave.

It struck me like lightning, and I knew in that moment what I had to do. Other people needed to hear these exact words. I wanted to shout them from the mountaintops, and I still do. Thats why I founded the Girl Be Brave movement. I wanted Frances words to vibrate through generations. We are able to maximize her impact by donating a portion of the proceeds of Girl Be Brave items to charity. Its a part of my vision to establish a Frances Hamilton scholarship fund for girls who dont have financial means.

Frances wrote that message to my mother because she knew my mother would need to be brave, and she was. My mother fought the fight of breast cancer and won. Thats brave.

Life isnt easy; we all go through times of darkness and uncertainty. In those challenging periods, we all need to remind ourselves to be brave and to keep living, keep moving, until we find the light. We must overcome. We must be brave.

Ive included some black-and-white photos of everyday women of today and long ago-women who, like Frances, radiate determination, courage, faith, and perseverance. May the words and photos inspire you to believe that you are brave. My grandmother would like that and so would I.

WILL ACTING ON THESE EMOTIONS TAKE YOU CLOSER OR FURTHER AWAY FROM THE PERSON YOU WANT TO BE?

One of the most powerful forces in your life are your emotions. On any given day, they can make or break you, assist you in building your life, or help you tear it down.

Your emotions are important. They need to be expressed, but you shouldnt live your life controlled by every emotion that passes through you. Emotions can take you to the highest of highs, but they can also push you to make a hasty choice that creates more harm than good. Some feelings just need to be observed and released.

When making decisions, its important not to act on feeling alone. Feelings are fleeting. Use your goals to help you decide what action to take. Ask yourself if acting on these emotions will take you closer or further away from the person you want to be.

Nobody wants to live in emotional turmoil. In order to live a life of peace and sound decision-making, we need to learn to own our feelings and not let them own us.

I dont know about you, but I like plans. I really like plans. I like goals and being productive. I like to know where Im going and how long it will take to get there. The bliss of a carefully thought-out plan is something insanely satisfying to me.

One pitfall for being wired this way is that, at times, I love my plan more than I love the goal. Thats a problem because sometimes along the way to your goal, youll need to change lanes.

As we are traveling toward our glorious destination, the route we take to get there may turn out to be different than we expected. Thats okay. Life is full of twists and turns that take us exactly where we need to be, when we need to get there.