Catching Souls

I am not a writer. Before now, I have never considered starting a blog. I actually have always despised writing and I think that is because I am simply not good at it. My friend Steph recently told me, “You are so good at writing” which I was surprised and flattered until she followed with, “You should have been a lawyer”. Who wants to read that? That sounds ridiculously boring. Right? I will not put down words that sound like art or poetry. So if you are looking for that–you are in the wrong place. If the grammar is awful, the punctuation wrong, or the writing just plain terrible, I am truly sorry.

Why now am I starting this blog?

Nine months ago my life changed when I received an invitation. Not an invitation in the mail or an Evite, but an invitation from the world, an invitation from God. It was more like this, than the invitation you might be picturing in your head. It wasn’t one singular moment in which I woke up, heard the voice of God from above, lightening striking,  and poof, I changed everything in my life. It was days, weeks and months, and I finally waved my white flag and surrendered. I’ll get more into the details of what the invitation exactly was in another blog. Sometimes I wish I had just said “yes” immediately, but I was scared.  I have 3 young children, my marriage, and our already-too-busy  life. I couldn’t imagine doing anymore than what I already had on my plate. I couldn’t imagine doing what was being asked of me. I never said, “no”, but I just couldn’t say “yes”, not for a long time. But God never gave up one me. {Thank You God} Everyday He was back with His plan. And so began my surrender and my journey.

Sometime between then and now I have been inspired by people who put their truth out to the world. They write beautifully honest words and bravely send them into the world for everyone and anyone who wants to enjoy them. I admire these people, these women, intensely.  I also find strength in their truth. They are not always feel good stories. Some are just plain painful and hard to read, but they are always honest. I’ve found the more I cling to their truths, the more people I connect with who speak their truth, the stronger I have become. I feel more connected to these women, to their truths, than I do to a lot of other things in the world. These connections were creating  links like you would see in a net, each connection or link making me stronger, building a net inside me which caught my soul. I kept coming back the Mother Teresa quote at the top of my blog, finally realizing I was living that. My soul was being caught by a net of love, and truth, which resulted in pure joy. My acupuncturist (Hi Jen!) once told me that they train experts to be able to recognize counterfeit money, by only studying real money. They never study the fakes, they study just real money. She said it’s the same with life, with people. This was life changing for me. It made me shift a lot of things in my life. Not putting any real energy into anything other than what I know to be true has been a powerful thing. It’s made me wonder, What if we all spoke our truths, like these women do,  for the world to read? If I am gaining so much from connecting with their honesty, it only made sense for me, at this point to begin to share the truth of my new journey.

 Nine months, one non-profit, 8 women brave enough to join me, an improved and closer relationship with God, a new obsession with Mother Teresa {I mean who doesn’t love her?}, and one huge commitment to love and compassion later… I am ready to share with you my journey, whoever the you might be. My friends, my family, my community, my world. It won’t be the best writing you’ve ever read , because I am a do-er more than I am a writer. But what I am doing, though small, I am doing with great love. {M.T.} Through the honesty of my own path I hope to inspire others, in some way, on their own path, whatever that might be. If I am able to make just one of those connections or links in a net that might catch a soul, this will have been good.

I have to admit sending my words out to the world is a bit scary, but if I have learned one thing in the past year, it is that scary is sometimes good. So here it goes…

XOXO

Allison

PS If you want to read more about the women I speak of, telling their truths, you can read their stories here and here. These are just my faves. I promise to share more later. Enjoy.