Inspiration Day 9 | That Time Listen To Your Mother Inspired the Hell Out of Me

If you were following me on Instagram and Facebook (and you should be) this spring, then you heard all about my experience as part of the very first Listen to Your Mother production here in Charleston. You heard about my nervous audition. I told you about the rehearsals. All the prep work and anticipation. And on the day of you got to see my view from the stage in between shows.

I shared my Listen To Your Mother essay, Traveling Mercies, with you on Mother’s Day. It’s about my mother, about her well wishes and her guidance through my own role as a mother. And the essay was true and felt beautiful to me, and I hope it felt that way to the audience too.

So much happened that day. There was so much love. So much happy. And so much inspiration.

I walked off the stage at the Footlight Players bubbling over with possibility and ideas and strength. It filled me up. I felt capable and possible. Like all of me and all of anything was possible. I wanted to tackle anything and everything and feel that way forever. I was ready to write my novel. I wanted to illustrate my children’s book. I wanted to take my photography to the next level, write poetry and letters and create community.

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt like the world is really your playground, and all you have to do is step forward to make something amazing happen?

Today the videos for Listen To Your Mother are released. And I have big plans to watch each of them with close attention and maybe some note taking because I’m searching for that inspiration again. These amazing, talented, beautiful, and powerful people came together to share honest stories with the world. And there is the crux of my inspiration. There is where all the power lies, in seeing my friends’ doing big things.

Yes. Listen To Your Mother is about motherhood and recognizing the many facets of that role in our lives. But for me, it was so much more than that. It was a springboard to amazing. It was moment when the world stopped and all that mattered were the golden moments. I found the beauty in the people and stage around me, and I found strength and potential inside of me. That’s what I need to tap.

And so, because I hope to inspire you to. I’m sharing some of the beautiful stories from Charleston’s first Listen To Your Mother. I hope you find your awesome in these words too.

First, enjoy my Traveling Merices.

Cindi Carver-Futch, who blogs here, make me laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time. Her essay “Growing a Daughter” is to beautiful.

Becca Finley is a new favorite person of mine, and her essay “Not a Mother” reminds me not to get boxed in, to think forward and in an open-minded and beautiful kind of way.

Of course there are a other stories I want you to hear. Other videos you need to understand. So I’m listing and linking them here. Enjoy it. Love it. And I want to hear your how you’re inspired when you’re done.

Janet Sheppard Kelleher reading “Birthin’ Babies”
Saritta Vann reading “Saying Yes Against all Odds”
Jennifer Quattlebaum reading “Pride and Joy”
Sean Scapellato reading “Dear Mom (an apology)”
Radia Heyward reading “The Time is Now”
Erin Kienzle reading “Lessons in Shopping”
Rhonda Devine reading “Raising Boys”
Angie Mizzell reading “Ready”
Donlon LeDuff Gadson reading (and singing) “If Only Wall Could Talk”
Angela Goss Avery reading “Wrapped”
Brandi Wolfe reading “Heartbeat”
Nicole Seitz reading “The Longing”