My Shoes. My Story.

Stories from the heart. For women. By women.

It is my desire that the stories on this blog provide you with the hope, inspiration and support you may need on your personal journey of self discovery.

Stories make up the fabrics of our lives. We share our stories over lunch or a cup of coffee.  We talk amongst friends about our daily triumphs, our hardships, our hopes and our dreams. Our stories weave together a tapestry of love, career, motherhood, marriage, divorce, death and the little things we experience daily. Our fiber, our inner being, strengthens in our decision to change, refocus or reinvent ourselves. We learn, we grow and we share. 

This blog site provides powerful stories from women around the world of hope, inspiration, growth and change for women just like you and me.

Scroll down to read some powerful stories by women just like you, and why not share your story today? You may not imagine the impact your story will have on someone else!

      Inspire with Love, 

Meet Janet Perez Eckles

My Shoes. My Story. – Janet Perez Eckles,
Orlando, Florida, USA
  

Why are these my favorite shoes? You’ll never believe it. I broke my foot and all my high, real high heels are too steep for my foot to bend that way. But when I found these, they fit perfectly. They give me the height I want and the platform style keeps the curve of my foot at a minimum. Crazy reason I know. But that’s it’s the pure truth.
 
Activity I enjoy immensely is dancing. Yes, us blind gals have rhythm and follow the beat quite well. A melodic Salsa is my favorite.

Read my story on motherhood, blindness and rising above.

A Few Tips on Starting a New Career After Divorce

My Shoes – My Story by Nancy D. Butler

• It’s progress that matters, not perfection.  

• It means more when you get there if you had to work for it.

• I don’t mind if I try something and find I hate it. It could have turned out to be the best things I ever did. If it turns out to be the opposite, I just won’t do it again. I’d rather try it and not like it, than to miss a great opportunity.

• Don’t be afraid to think out of the box and dream. Although it may make you less popular with those around you, it is what has brought us some of the greatest inventions and life changing breakthroughs ever.

Read my full story on Divorce and Career

Meet Barbara Bloom

My Shoes. My Story. – Barbara Bloom, Houston, Texas, USA

I love flip flops with bling for style and comfort. Slipping on my flip flops works the best for my fast paced life of raising children.

One thing most people do not know about me is my favorite childhood icon was Evel Knievel. My brother had a replica Evel Knievel bicycle and we used to make ramps out of bricks and boards. I even have a trophy injury on my left shoulder from an accident. I like the thrill of speed with a touch of danger, especially roller coasters and racing.  


Read my story about motherhood and rising above my troubled teenagers.

Meet Marianne Douglas

My Shoes, My Story. – Marianne Douglas,
Barrington, Rhode Island USA
 

These are my favorite shoes and also my newest. I've been playing the Fairy Godmother in "Cindrella" for the past 5 years with a professional touring children's company - Kaleidoscope Theatre. I found these shoes recently and added them to my costume. I just finished a one week tour of the show with the new shoes and they were a big hit according to the little girls who came through our autograph lines. And that makes me happy! I love adding a smile to someone's life and my sparkly shoes are another way to do it!
 
Many years ago I created a handmade Fairy Tale Princess Wreath for little girls to wear and that can be displayed when not in use. It has a story connected with it about the power of doing good deeds. They are handmade by my mom Molly, my cousin Val, her daughter Jessie, and me.

Read my story about Giving Teens a Strategy for Success

Meet Amy Sherman

My Shoes. My Story. – Amy Sherman,
Lake Worth, Florida, USA

 

I just bought these shoes and was so happy to have an opportunity to wear them for this picture. I love the color and satin-like texture. My hubby will have to take me out on the town in them.

I love word and number games. I do the crossword puzzle and play sudoku everyday in my morning paper. Then at my leisure I tackle Words with Friends,Scramble and Spider Solitaire. I love the challenge of completing a puzzle and enjoy the  thrill when I beat my opponent. These games give me some down time from a busy, hectic day!

Read my story on Healing and Overcoming Adversity

Fresh Start for a Yummy New Business

 

  My Shoes – Tonya's Story by Fresh Start

 

Tonya had always dreamed of owning her own business, but something was keeping it from her.  She even knew exactly what it was that she wanted to do.  She had always loved baking, but she also has a fascination with trucks – she knew that she wanted to operate a food truck with baked goods.  She worked on a business plan, looked for trucks, and really started to plan out her business.  Her full-time still kept her from pursuing her dream.  Fate intervened when Tonya was laid off from her job.  She knew better than to jump right in with a new venture though.  She had been having some serious problems with her teenage daughter and decided that she needed some career and personal guidance.  A friend told Tonya about Fresh Start and she thought it sounded like the perfect place for her to go for help.

 

Mamma Toledo's - We'll Shut Your Pie Hole!

She started working with one of Fresh Start’s Empowerment Specialists, who are Master’s Level Social Workers.  She met with her Empowerment Specialists weekly for two months and they helped her set a course for her life plans.   She decided that she really did want to pursue her business dream, so she enrolled in Fresh Start’s Mentoring Program to be paired with someone who had entrepreneurial expertise and could help her navigate this new venture.  Tonya’s mentor helped her with goals, structure and putting together a comprehensive business plan.

Tonya purchased her truck in October of 2011.  She developed a logo, image and marketing materials, in addition to finalizing her menu and ingredients.  Her food truck is now in full operation and has been quite successful.  She attends “Food Truck Friday” every week in downtown Phoenix along with local farmers markets.   She also partners with a local coffee shop who sells her products at their storefront.

As she looks to the future, Tonya’s goal is build upon the mentoring relationship that she has had through Fresh Start and begin to mentor others.  She is focusing on teens because of the issues she worked through with her daughter and hopes to start employing  and teaching local teens so that she can pass along the knowledge she has gained.

I Saw the Best of Life – Facing Blindness

My Shoes – My Story by Janet Perez Eckles

 

"I'm okay, Honey," I said to my seven-year old son, Jason as I pressed a
 piece of ice on my forehead.

"Are you crying?" He asked.

I brushed a tear off my cheek and nodded as my heart ached. How could I tell
 my three little boys that their mommy's vision was diminishing? They would
 never understand about incurable retinal diseases or the fact I inherited it 
from their grandfather.

For the moment the tiny field vision I still had left ushered me from task 
to task as their mommy.

Pressing ice to my forehead to dull the pain, I sat on the couch in our
 family room. And while they all romped in the backyard, I made the decision.
 My limited eyesight wouldn't interfere in my role as their mom. On the
 contrary, I'd use each episode to teach them about life.

"You have a bump on your forehead," Jason said when he came inside. I had
 removed the ice and the spot still throbbed.

"I do," I said matter-of-factly. "There's a lump, but I didn't fall down. 
I'm really okay. In life we all have bumps in the road. We'll run into
 things we never expected to be there. I run into things because I can't see 
too well." I pulled him closer. "As you grow up, you'll probably have
 obstacles too. And when you do, guess what? God is already watching over
 you. Sometimes He allows a bump, but if you trust in Him, He'll never let
 you fall."

Each time I faced a challenge, I laced lessons for each of them. My
 three-year old brought a book for me to read to him – attempt to read with 
little vision. I sat him on my lap and opened it to the first page.

"Mommy it's upside down," he said as he turned the book in my hands.

Meet Rosalind Sedacca

My Shoes. My Story – Rosalind Sedacca, Boynton Beach, Florida, USA

 

These shoes are my go-with-everything shoes. The heel’s the perfect height, the color blends with anything I wear, the lines are classy and feminine.

I love to walk in nature, especially when there are birds and other animals around. It soothes my soul, rekindles my energy and makes me feel alive and enthusiastic about life.

 

Read my story about Divorce and How to Tell Your Children

Practicing Tough Love – A Mother's Survival with Troubled Teens

 

My Shoes – My Story by Barbara Bloom

 

It took me years to figure out why life doesn’t come with a book of written instructions.  The answer is really simple: we are writing our own life journals.  As we walk each day through our own trials and tribulations full of happiness, joy, pain and sorrow, we are writing the book.

I am a mother to four young adult children.  I have been through perhaps my greatest trial with two troubled teenage girls who are now troubled young adults.  The parenting challenges I experienced raising troubled teens consisted of extreme psychotic issues, drug dependencies, and troubles with the law.  For years, I felt like I was a passenger on an out-of-control freight train as my daughters drove the train full speed ahead while they sat laughing side by side in the front engine compartment on a one-way path of destruction.  As a mother, I was always striving to get one step ahead of the troubled girls, but shamefully I was always one step behind.  I lost all my friends due to living with troubled teens.  I was forced to live a daily life that was crumbling apart as my heart was being mentally and emotionally ripped out.  I was always making excuses for my family and the girls due to the chaos in my home.  I begged daily in-person and on the telephone for anyone to help our family.  My only therapy was when a stranger would listen, and I lost my identity due to the trauma I was experiencing.  We didn’t have family to step in and offer help.  The only family we had to count on in crisis was my immediate family, which consisted of my current husband, who is stepfather to the children, one son, and the two troubled daughters.  It was lonely and depressing going through my day-to-day life and sometimes I felt as if we were a freak show, full of problems that had no explanation.  I remember how hard it was sometimes to just catch a breath.  A neighbor once brought flowers to my home after one of my daughter’s overdose nightmares, and I will never forget the thoughtfulness she showed. 

I have learned how to treasure simple moments while experiencing trauma.  One survival skill I practiced when my life was out of control was using simple positive affirmations.  As I pushed forward, I thought to myself, When the going gets tough the tough get going.  I would remember, Where there is a will there is a way.  Daily, my only way of survival was to practice and process very simple positive thoughts.  I had to talk to my inner self.  I remember telling myself that I did not have time to give up, and, while pushing forward, to remember that tomorrow would be a new day.  This is one way I would grab my inner strength, for I knew something was always better than nothing.  My wounded soul was constantly open and I was barely able to refuel my energy for each day.  When living with chaos you do not have a clear mind and the pain feels like you are experiencing death seven days a week. 

Giving Teens a Strategy for Success

My Shoes – My Story by Marianne Douglas

 

What changed the direction of my life was the suicide of one my students. 
It happened a year after Columbine. He had been in my class for his first 
3 years of high school. He chose to end his life the night of the Senior 
Class banquet. I was there that night and it was horrible.

I vowed that night that I would do something to give teens the tools they 
needed to cope with life. I had taken a seminar with Tony Robbins the 
previous December and learned some things I had never learned as a student or 
teacher. I wrote to him over several months saying we needed to teach this 
material to teens. The head of his foundation wrote to me a few days 
after my student passed away and said they were gathering 24 teachers and 60 
students in San Diego for their first youth leadership conference. Would I 
be part of it?

I was and came back to my school in September and proposed a new course 
for my school - one full of the lessons that teens needed but were not 
receiving. I got the go-ahead and the year after that, Strategies for Success was born. It was incredibly popular, so much so that parents wanted their 
kids in it and the students asked me to write a sequel. I never taught my 
old subject again. I was named Teacher of the Year and have since received 
many accolades for this program. But most important was that this program 
changed the lives of the students in my school and the school in general.

From that time on, I have been trying to get my program into every high 
school. I co-wrote the play "BULLY" with Kaleidoscope Theatre  executive director David Payton which 
incorporated a few of the lessons. I'm also acting in the show. It recently 
received the Justice Award from the Attorney General's office. I also 
just taught the program to a group of college freshmen to rave reviews.

“You were put on this earth to help the kids whose parents don’t pay 
attention to them. You are our parents. We are all your kids. God bless you 
for putting you and this program in our lives.”

I am passionate about this program. My life has always been about kids 
but I'm dedicated to getting the tools kids need to them so that they can 
not only survive the 21st century issues but thrive.

You can find more at Strategies for Success Curriculum.