In the depths of despair we find our greatest strength and in the face of adversity .. hope shines the brightest.

Hope, I’ve learned, isn’t a passive dream but a powerful force.

A guiding light through the darkest of times.

It’s the quiet voice that whispers
“Keep Going…”

when every cell in your body screams
“I JUST CAN’T!!”

Hope is seeing the strength in our loved one’s smile the resilience in their eyes … even if hidden deep deep behind sad or scared eyes.

Hope is knowing no matter how arduous the journey .. we’re not alone.

And while hope is real ..

and it’s powerful ..

hope doesn’t deny the reality of struggle nor promise an easy journey.

It’s because of this that it’s safe to hope.

And ..

It’s our universal, equal access gift, there to guide individuals and humanity back to center.

What do you do to keep hope alive in the midst of tremendous struggle?

I focus on what I’m learning from the pain and fear.

Julie Browne, Speaker, Author  

MASTERS of CHANGE

#Li...

Staying unclear on who we really are is convenient for others.

It’s staying in the comfort zone.

Staying on the far side of possibility.

• But we're not born to fit into places we do not belong.

Finding where we belong — what intentions and actions light us up.. give us fuel to meet each day with purpose and enthusiasm — is built into our DNA.

We can settle for comfort, for mediocrity or strive for satisfaction.

What choice are you making?

What leaps have you taken lately?

My latest leap is public speaking.

I did my first presentation on my passion topic — Mastering the Daunting Life with a Catastrophic Medical Diagnosis.

I showed up and presented before I was ready.

I knew I’d be good enough.

Knew I’d clear the gap.

Now it’s about improving and refining.

It’s downhill from here.

But downhill doesn’t mean not failing. It’s failing forward.

It’s like hiking the 11 miles ALL downhill on the east side of Mt. Whitney.

Not every step is easy.

It requires a different ki...

If you’re not complacent, not satisfied with past wins, if you’re working to level up, become a higher version of yourself, this is for you.

Thinking, feeling, AND doing is how to manifest your dreams.

• Planning only gets you so far.

Over the years I’ve learned this is SO true.

And I learned it the hard way.

I was maybe too methodical in setting up my career. I have TWO masters degrees in planning. lol …

Now I know, while planning is valuable, it can:

1. only get you so far and

2. even stop you in your tracks because it can be endless.

It’s much better (for many things, not everything) to:

— plan some,

— then implement,

— bake in ongoing evaluation, and

— iterate while in motion.

—.—

A tip about becoming that’s helped me tremendously:

• Make the decisions you’d make if you were already that person / in that position.

That takes courage.

It requires investments you’re not yet sure will pay off.

• What’s an investment you’re reluctant to make but think it would
...

Last night I gave a presentation to a NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) support group.

The audience all have a family member with severe mental illness.

For those who don’t know, this means they have a life full of crises and untenable fear, along with profound grief from a cascade of broken dreams gobbled up by the diagnosis.

• My goal was to give them a framework to help them suffer less and start to thrive, in spite of their circumstances.

I shared basics from my book — Masters of Change — about being in a forced identity transition after the rug’s pulled out from under you.

And I connected the dots around how it applies to them.

Because of new roles they’re taking on to support their loved ones, they’re no longer Doing and Being like before.

That’s the core criteria for being in either a chosen or forced identity transition.

Then I cherry-picked the most important concepts and principles to help with their specific journey — dealing with a catastrophic medical di...

Grief expert Zoe Clark-Coates, who together with her husband lost five babies, shared this insight about grief on Instagram.

—.—.—.

I want to try to explain why grief can also bring fear into one’s life.

There are many reasons why this can happen, but here is one of the biggest causes.

When you have endured incomprehensible grief, when pain erupted like a never ending volcano, it shatters your belief system…

• That internal seed of hope, that life will always be ok, implodes.

One moment you were fine, the next you’re wailing on the floor, hoping the searing pain will end.

You have now seen beyond the veil, looked into that hidden room, glimpsed inside Pandora’s box, and now you can’t unsee what you have witnessed.

I still long for that innocence, that unawareness to be returned to me.

To go back to a time when I didn’t know pain like this existed.

To return to a time when I didn’t feel the need to stand on guard just in case the trap door opens beneath my feet.

This is a...

I grabbed this off Facebook.

It shows a behind the curtain glimpse of life with a serious, chronic disease.

The author conveys the depth of complexity and despair around disease management.

—.—

"Is it me? Am I the problem?"

Being a rare disease patient (and I’m guessing parent of a child with one), one of the BIGGEST things you have to learn is ADVOCACY.

To speak up for yourself — how you feel, and what your body needs.

Even though I have been in the ICU I have this horrible fear of being the “annoying patient.”

Does anyone else have this problem?

Like if you speak too much, you're going to end up with no help and no health care team at all?

How do you deal with this fear?

What do you think gave you this fear?

It’s a very real fear.

I get rid of doctors that don’t listen to me and treat me as a knowledgeable person.

And with doctors I’ll only be seeing once, I treat them with respect while still holding my ground. No sense losing my cool.

I know that we don’t always ha...

One of the great things about FORCED change — when the rug’s pulled out from under you — is that you have no choice BUT to test, learn, and grow.

To change.

Take risks.

Explore and discover new options.

• New ways of doing and being you hadn’t thought of before.

Or HAD thought of but never put in motion.

Change is inevitable.

You’re in a no man’s land and HAVE to find your way to the other side.

That’s unless you choose to stay stuck.

Or worse, careen downward on an endless spiral.

I’ve had lots of forced identity transitions in my life.

In later years, I recognized that planning can only get you so far.

I have two masters degrees in planning. lol

But later, I learned to be comfortable making decisions based on incomplete plans.

To be comfortable being uncomfortable.

I discovered that next steps reveal themselves once I’m in motion.

• That at some point, a plan will most certainly expire its usefulness.

Reveal it was only, COULD only have been, a half-plan.

That a...

Sharing part of a post, and a profound description of autism from a parent’s Facebook post. 

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/share/1AFJv2s9Jx/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Website:

https://www.johnroedel.com/

4-18-25

Recently, the Secretary of Health and Human Services — said people living with autism “will never pay taxes, hold a job, go on a date, or use a toilet unassisted.

In short - he said people like my son are broken.

…

I’ve spent the last two decades learning from my son that the polar opposite of what our Health Czar claims to be true.

So today, I’m not here to argue—I’m here to testify. Not with statistics. Not with rage. But with love.

                                    *** 

-what autism has taught me- 

my son’s 25-year journey with 

autism has taught me

that life isn't about fixing 

what I think has been broken

there is

no fixing

people

there is nothing

to fix

autism isn't another word

for broken

I swear

there is not...

What’s the difference?

We move on FROM something.

We move forward WITH something.

—.—

When it comes to grief, moving on implies that we can leave grief behind us.

But that’s not how grief works.

This kind of closure is a fallacy.

Grief never dies nor can we leave it behind.

A loss will always be a loss, no matter how long ago it was.

We cannot “move on” from our grief.

It takes up permanent residence in our hearts and minds.

• Moving forward with grief implies we continue our life journey evolving alongside our grief.

We learn to accommodate it.

It changes over time.

It changes US over time.

Grief becomes an integral part of our identity.

It has the power to change worldviews and what’s important…

For many who “do the work” …

Grief stops defining the rest of their lives.

—.—

But it can devour us in pain if not tended to—when we try to “Just move on.”

So choose your words wisely—words matter—and for someone in grief, they know the difference.

—Julie

P.S. Grief...