Three Things Worth Celebrating
Christal Earle, Founder and CEO of Brave Soles
This past year gave us so many great opportunities that would have been easy to miss.
I wanted to take a minute and share what we are celebrating as we look over our shoulder...
1.We are celebrating the hidden power of gratitude.
From climate crisis anxiety to personal setbacks, choosing gratitude has personally been a life habit that has helped me calm my thoughts and get back on track this past year.
In 2021, we learned to be grateful for three things in particular:
1. You, our customers.
Your kind words and honest feedback this past year gave us the courage and inspiration to keep going. Hearing from you on what matters and how you are growing through this past year has been truly inspiring. Thank you.
2. Our team at Brave Soles.
Our team is made up of almost all women, from many walks of life. We are spread out around the globe and we all love our families, the people in our community and, of course, shoes ;)Having good people in your world gives you many reasons to believe in good things for the world.
3. Sustainability champions.
The struggle is real, and so are the stories of overcoming them. I am truly grateful for sharing a new level of connection with so many people around the world and learning about how they are pivoting their lives and creating new paths for themselves and the world. Our future is in good hands if we can continue to be open to new ideas and inspirations.
2. We are celebrating hidden heroes all over the place.
Heroes have a habit of showing up in every corner of our lives, if we are looking for them in the first place.
From the teacher who consistently expands her students’ minds to think about what they can contribute to the world, to the farmer who is willing to experiment with sustainable ideas, heroes are real and they walk among us.
They can be found in places where they are adored by millions, and they can also be found reading the fine print on a label to make sure they are making the best choices for the world with whatever they are purchasing.
As we heard from some of our customers on what their personal goals and ideas were that they were taking action on, it reminded us that we actually have a lot of heroes walking around in Brave Soles, too ;)
3. We are celebrating and recognizing what is truly good in humanity.
This year we have all witnessed how nations can disintegrate within moments, how hopes and dreams can be swept up in fires and floods, and how the earth’s resources are being stretched and misappropriated by greed and tyranny.
It’s not been a great report card for humanity.
But I don’t believe in declaring war on anything, not even injustice. I think it would be exhausting to only know what you were against, rather than what you were for.
Elie Wiesel said that the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.
His words inspired me in 2021 to think about how I could live in the opposite of indifference in new ways. I asked myself what would happen if I started to assume that everyone around me and in my life are simply doing their best.
Maybe their best and my best didn’t match up, but it gave me a starting point for a new level of compassion.
Spoiler alert: it made every interaction a new adventure to find something to celebrate in the other person;)
From the small choices that threaten to make family dinner difficult, to the global declarations that are signed and (hopefully) followed through on, big doors literally turn on the small hinges of our choices - one by one. This past year has been a gift because we have experienced it together. Thank you for showing up in life. You make us want to do better, too.