Way back when "Running with Stilettos" was just a wee new blog and I had JUST collected a bunch of essays from the blog into a book of the same name, I was surfing the internet one night looking for something else. It was close to seven years ago, somewhere in the summer of 2008.
And while I didn't find the link that I was looking for, I came across an ad for something called "Growing Bolder," a website based in Florida that devoted itself to the message (at least as I understood it!) that instead of bemoaning the fact that we are all inevitably growing "older," we should celebrate that we can and often do grow "bolder" in our choices.
Given that I was shopping for my first motorcycle jacket at the age of fifty and had only started wearing spike heels not very long before that, you could say that I was "all in" from the start! For years I posted paragraphs and essays at the Growing Bolder site, sharing news, challenges, photos, and encouragement on a "member page" personal blog. There were ups and downs, joys and sorrows, challenges and satisfactions...and demons wrestled to the ground.
In my literary world, I wrote three more books, and learned to enjoy speaking in front of groups of people instead of wanting to run from the room. Growing Bolder turned into a media juggernaut, expanding to radio, TV, magazine, and now a documentary. The GB website has undergone a sleek new redesign recently, and I am so very happy to note that while the "member pages" part of the site is gone, I've been folded into the official "GB blogging team." Woo hoo!!!!!
And so I expect that just as hearts expand to hold more love, my writing output will expand a bit too. I'll still be posting at Running With Stilettos...and I'll still be adding to my "author website" here as well. But come on over to check out Growing Boldertoo! Not just for what I'll be writing, but for everything the website has to offer in terms of inspiration, and encouragement, and pushing one's limits, and trying new things. Because we can ALL use more of that to keep us "growing bolder" instead of "just growing older."