An Evening with Glennon Doyle Melton

On my drive to the high school stage where Glennon Doyle Melton (author of Carry On, Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life) would be speaking, I had no idea what was in store for me that night. To be touched so deeply by someone else’s words and feel exposed and safe at the same time.

For some reason I brought my little notebook with me, and I’m so glad I did. Although I wish I had recorded audio of it to listen to it over again. Glennon was amazing. Her willingness to be so vulnerable but at the same time showing how strong she is, was incredible. I was crying in the first 5 minutes from her statement about how “everyone who loves an addict waits for that call.” I’m tearing up just thinking about how that statement hit me like a ton of bricks in the truth of it.

When she spoke of how her addiction affected her, why she turned to addiction, her struggle with sobriety, all I could think of my brave husband who has now been two years sober this past June. It hasn’t been an easy road, for anyone in the family, but our family is so much happier with the “secret” being out.

Glennon talks about life being brutiful: brutal and beautiful. We just need to find our happiness in this brutiful life. Don’t be afraid of what makes life hard and difficult. There is still beauty in it.

We are constantly being told in the media (television, music, movies, advertisements, etc.) that we don’t have enough, that we are not enough. But nothing could be further from the truth. We all have a gift to give to this world. One no one else has, yourself.

Your story is important. You never know how it might help someone else be less afraid of their secret self, the one they’re afraid no one will love them for. But in reality, it’s the people who love you, secret self and all, whom we should keep close. They give us strength, light, and raise our vibration to help bring us closer to the person we want to be.

I might have never made it to the event if it hadn’t been for my sisters. Both were fans of her writing and had invited me to come with to hear her speak. I am close with my sisters and trust their judgement. Keep your eyes and ears open to new opportunities that will open your world that are brought to you by those people who raise your vibrations.