Sonia Marsh - Gutsy Living

Life's too short to play it safe

  • Home
  • About Sonia
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Freeways to Flip-Flops
    • My Gutsy Story® Anthology
  • Media
    • Press Kit +Videos
    • Print Media
    • Awards-Reviews-Testimonials
    • Sonia’s Blog Tour
  • Contact

Archives for January 2014

Vote For Your Favorite January “My Gutsy Story®”

January 30, 2014 by Sonia Marsh 3 Comments

Vote for my gutsy story hand
Click on link for artist Cliff Beaman

Get ready to VOTE for your favorite one of 4 “My Gutsy Story®” submissions. You have from now until  February 12th to vote on the sidebar, (only one vote per person) and the winner will be announced on February 13th, and will select a prize from our generous sponsors.

Our 1st “My Gutsy Story®” is by Jon Magidsohn.

Jon Magidsohn
Jon Magidsohn

SONIA MARSH SAYS: Jon, your story and your words bring out so many emotions from love, to loss, to love. What a powerful and beautifully written “My Gutsy Story®.”

Our 2nd “My Gutsy Story®” is by Gillian Jackson

Gillian Jackson
Gillian Jackson

SONIA MARSH SAYS: It’s so nice to hear a positive ending, and that your husband was so supportive and helpful during this difficult time. I am also amazed at how your writing has blossomed and helped you through everything.

Our 3rd “My Gutsy Story®” is by Eleanor Vincent

Eleanor Vincent
Eleanor Vincent

SONIA MARSH SAYS: A story of love and courage during a time that mothers never want to face.

Our 4th “My Gutsy Story®” is by Shirley Showalter.

Shirley Showalter
Shirley Showalter

SONIA MARSH SAYS: Shirley, I had never thought about living for two until you described what you realized about facing death as part of life.

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

MGS FINAL COVER Small

Click on cover to go to Amazon

Would you like to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” and get published in our 2nd anthology?

Please see guidelines below and contact Sonia Marsh at: sonia@soniamarsh.com for details.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

VOTING for your favorite January 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” starts on January 30th and ends on February 12th. Winner will be announced on February 13th.

 

 

How I Became a “Gutsy” Mennonite

January 27, 2014 by Sonia Marsh 25 Comments

Shirley Showalter

The Fear of Death

  “My Gutsy Story®” Shirley Showalter

Behind all our fears, often hidden even to ourselves, lies one big fear.

Yes, you got it. The fear of death.

We can’t become truly gutsy, courageous, until we accept the reality of death and consciously seek to live deeply and fully in its presence.

I first stared death in the face at the age of six.

Shirley Showalter as a child and coffin

It happened this way:

On the evening of Dec. 20, 1954, my younger brother Henry and I were playing in a little stack of hay in our barn, making tunnels out of bales and talking about what we hoped for in our Christmas stockings. Cows chewed contentedly next to us. The DeLaval milkers sounded almost like heartbeats—lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub—as they extracted warm milk from each udder.

And then we heard it: a horrible, penetrating, animal-like scream, piercing that night and my life to this day. The terrible sound grew louder as Mother came toward the barn. She ran to Daddy and, still screaming, started pounding him on his chest.

“My baby is dead. Our baby is dead. My baby is dead.” That was all she could say, over and over again. Then she would throw back her head and wail.

I learned a lesson that night that I would have to learn again when my father died at age 55 and when several close friends died in sudden, untimely ways.

We all die.

From then on, life became even more precious. I decided to live twice, once for myself and once for the little sister who lived only 39 days.

When I played softball on the playground, I swung for the fences.

When I read books, like Little Women, I identified with the gutsiest character, Jo.

When I discovered you have to go to college in order to be a teacher I decided to go, even though my parents weren’t enthusiastic about the idea. Even though no one else in my family had ever gone.

When I stood up to the bishop in my Mennonite Church and told him that he wasn’t practicing what he preached.

What does it mean to live twice? How did it change my life?

In other words, my childhood and adolescence were never the same after I heard my mother scream and after I touched the cold, white skin of my baby sister inside that sad little casket in 1954.

Death made a searcher out of me. I sought out writers who understood urgency, such as Annie Dillard, who advised:

Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon? What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?

I love these words. I try to keep them in mind as I write my stories.

But I have to keep something else in mind also.

I believe that death is not the end of life. The writers I love best don’t dwell on morbidity, they face death and fear, and while doing so, come home to themselves by coming home to love. Engraved inside their hearts is the reminder that love is eternal.

But it wasn’t a writer that taught me that lesson first; it was my mother. After she shook my six-year-old world with her screams and tears, she took solace in her faith and accepted the comfort of friends and family. Depression tempted her. She could have withdrawn from life and hence from her living children. Had that happened, you would not be reading these words.

Sometimes the gutsiest things we do are to keep on putting one foot in front of another and continuing to live, determined to turn darkness into light.

Next month my mother turns eighty-seven. I no longer fear death because love has triumphed. Whatever is gutsy in me goes all the way back to 1954 and to the woman who never gave up on life, my mother.

Shirley Showalter and her mom

SHIRLEY HERSHEY SHOWALTER, author of Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World, grew up on a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, dairy farm and went on to become a professor and then college president and foundation executive. Find her at her website: www.shirleyshowalter.com

Please watch my interview with Shirley Showalter about her memoir: Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World

Click on cover to go to Amazon
Click on cover to go to Amazon

Please join Shirley on her Facebook page, and on Twitter @Shirleyhs

Here is my 5-star review of Shirley’s excellent memoir, Blush.

 ***

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

MGS FINAL COVER Small

Click on cover to go to Amazon

Would you like to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” and get published in our 2nd anthology?

Please see guidelines below and contact Sonia Marsh at: sonia@soniamarsh.com for details.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Our January 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” series started with:

  1. Jon Magidsohn
  2. Gillian Jackson
  3. Eleanor Vincent

VOTING for your favorite January 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” starts on January 30th and ends on February 12th. Winner will be announced on February 13th.

Get Paid as a Travel Blogger -LA Times Travel Show

January 26, 2014 by Sonia Marsh Leave a Comment

Sonia and Elaine Small
Sonia Marsh and travel blogger Elaine Masters at LA Times Travel Show

Do you love to travel? What about travel writing?

As a travel fan, author and blogger, I find that Trade Day at the LA Times Travel Show is the place to learn what’s new and hot in the travel business.

I follow several travel bloggers, but did not know about professional organizations that link travel bloggers with the travel industry. The Professional Travel Bloggers Association (PTBA) is an organization created by the efforts of almost fifty travel bloggers over the past year or so. They have specific requirements to join:

  • For travel bloggers: a minimum of nine months blogging and more than 3,000 page views in the last thirty days on your website. The annual fee is $75.
  • For travel industry and PR members: there is no minimum statistical requirement. The fee for a group/company/DMO/organization that wants to join is $300 per year.

There are several lists of professional travel bloggers specializing in family travel, eco-travel, luxury travel, and many other categories, you can join.

  •  Navigatemediagroup.com
  • iAmbassador.com
  • Ecoadventuremedia.com
  •  Bestfamilytravelexperts.com

***

Rob Holmes-Founder-Chief Storyteller GLP Films
Rob Holmes-Founder-Chief Storyteller GLP Films

Rob Holmes, founder and chief storyteller of GLP Films, spoke about “The Power of Storytelling–in Travel.”

Yes, even travel films and videos need authentic storytelling in order to engage their audiences.

Introducing GLP Films in a short video.


Holmes breaks down storytelling for film in a way that can help writers.

The Key Elements to storytelling:

  • Purpose
  • Journey
  • Location
  • Characters
  • Keywords (yes, that surprised me too!)

1). Purpose:

  • Ask yourself why am I telling this story?
  • Who am I going to target? (my audience)
  • What is the potential impact? (sales)

2). Journey:

  • What is the journey? (for example a great rafting trip)
  • What is the conflict? (to make it engaging)
  • What are the key themes in this journey or film?

3). Location:

  • You want diversity. What are the key locations?
  • How are the locations relevant to the characters?
  • Observe and obtain a diverse mix of shots.

4). Character:

  • Who are your characters?
  • What are their stories?
  • How can your audience connect?
  • In film-making, sometimes your best characters are not the CEO or employees, but some local character you didn’t expect.

5). Keywords:

  • Identify 10+ keywords or phrases to describe your story.
  • Research what your film partners, (or similar writers) are using as keywords.

What do you mean by keywords?

I asked Rob Holmes what he meant by keywords, and how to find new keywords for your content.

Rob suggested inviting 5-6 friends who know you well, and brainstorm. Ask them to come up with keywords that fit your theme. A glass of wine may help the process.

What is a great story-page-0

A great story just like a great film, needs to be:

  • Powerful
  • Engage the audience
  • Educate (or entertain)
  • You need to take risks to make it unique
  • It needs to be perpetual (do not date it)

I was impressed with the quality of GLP films, and also the power of storytelling in film.

 ***

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

MGS FINAL COVER Small

Click on cover to go to Amazon

Would you like to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” and get published in our 2nd anthology?

Please see guidelines below and contact Sonia Marsh at: sonia@soniamarsh.com for details.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Our January 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” series started with:

  1. Jon Magidsohn
  2. Gillian Jackson
  3. Eleanor Vincent

Monday, January 27th, Shirley Showalter will share his “My Gutsy Story®.”

VOTING for your favorite January 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” starts on January 30th and ends on February 12th. Winner will be announced on February 13th.

Letting Go; Allowing My Daughter to Die

January 20, 2014 by Sonia Marsh 21 Comments

Eleanor Vincent

The Greatest Gift

“My Gutsy Story®” by Eleanor Vincent

 

I stared out the window in the Neuroscience ICU waiting room. Below me, stick figures moved across achingly green lawns. They looked like a cardboard tableau of normal life. Mt. Diablo’s saw tooth outline cut through a ribbon of clouds. A grandfather of a mountain, its hulking presence loomed above the rolling hills and valleys of Contra Costa County, a collection of suburban towns east of San Francisco. My older daughter Maya’s accident had happened three days earlier on a hot April afternoon in the foothills of Mt. Diablo.

She had hiked to a meadow laced with oat grass and wildflowers. A ravine full of scrub oak and laurel trees tumbled down to a dry creek bed. One of her friends dared her to ride bareback on a horse they found there unfenced and unsecured. The animal reared and threw Maya to the ground with such force that she never regained consciousness.

For the last 72 hours, we had endured the hell of waiting at Maya’s bedside.

Now, I looked at my watch, steeling myself to face the double doors that led into the Intensive Care Unit, and another ten minutes with my comatose child. I lifted the house phone.

“This is Maya’s mom. Can I see her now?”

“Yes,” a voice answered. “I’ll buzz you in.”

I walked toward my daughter’s bed, past the curtains surrounding families bent over other silent forms. After three days of willing my daughter to recover, an impossible thought dawned – Maya might not make it. When I reached her bedside, I took her hand in mine.

“Sweetheart, it’s Mom. I’ve been telling you that you will get well. But maybe what I want isn’t what matters.”

A roar filled my brain. I shook my head, trying to silence my own resistance. I spoke to my nineteen-year-old daughter, saying out loud what I would never accept in my heart. “You decide, honey. I won’t hold you back.”

Maya
Maya

I looked down at the beautiful young woman she had become. Maya’s face, inanimate as ice, was rosy-cheeked, bride-like against the stark white sheets.

I leaned into her and whispered the biggest lie of my life, never doubting she could hear me. “I’ll be all right, sweetheart, if you need to go.”

I wanted to throw myself across her chest and give in to hours of suppressed weeping. But then I had a new thought: If I break down, it will be too hard for her to die. My task now is to let her go.

Maya’s chest rose and fell. The ventilator hissed, the monitors beeped, a fiber optic cable snaked into her skull to measure the pressure inside her brain. Over the last three days I had become expert at reading the peaks and valleys on the monitors.

I whispered, “It’s between you and God, now, Maya.”

* * * * *

The next afternoon, Maya’s brain surgeon, Dr. Carr, asked to speak with us about the results of the cerebral blood flow study he had ordered. One of the nurses gathered us into a windowless conference room where a hospital social worker sat at the opposite end of the conference table, looking grave and sympathetic.

Dr. Carr came in, his white coat flapping, and sat down at the head of the table. I sat on his left side, staring at him.

“The test we did shows how much blood is flowing to the brain.” He spoke to the wall, not looking at us. “There is none, absolutely none, zero blood flow. I’ve declared her brain dead.”

I could not move, or even blink. A collective gasp filled the cramped room. Maya’s boyfriend, Dale, groaned. My ex-husband, Dan, put his head in his hands.

“I’ve called in a second surgeon to confirm the diagnosis of death by neurological criteria,” Dr. Carr said. He spoke with exaggerated calm, seemingly oblivious to the emotions swirling around him.

My eleven-year-old daughter Meghan leaned against her father and wept. Dale’s mother began screaming “NO!” over and over.

Hot tears of disbelief trickled down my cheeks. Of all the people in the room, I was the only one who did not move, or cry out. I felt granite-hard, yet sensitive as a tuning fork, paralyzed with grief.

For the first time since he had entered the room, Dr. Carr met my gaze. His eyes were like icy blue marbles. “Would you consider organ donation?”

The question hung in the air for a long moment. I pictured families in other hospital conference rooms waiting for bad news.

“Yes,” I heard myself say.

Dr. Carr nodded. “At least it won’t be a total waste,” he said. I recoiled.

He waved his hand in the direction of the ICU and all the high-tech gadgetry keeping Maya’s heart beating, her lungs pumping, her blood circulating. I could see he meant that all the effort and resources spent on a hopeless case would not be in vain. But my “yes” meant that the love and energy I had poured into my daughter, her very life, must continue. I could no more accept that Maya was truly dead than I could fly to the moon or allow any vital part of her that could save another human being to go to her grave.

I trembled uncontrollably. I was about to give my daughter away in pieces. If I had fought harder, could I have held her here? I gave Maya ultimate freedom and she took it.

* * * * *

Maya’s organs were donated to critically ill patients. My decision saved four lives. Her bone and tissue helped restore sight and mobility to dozens more. In the 21 years since that April day when I made the most difficult decision of my life, I have often wondered what gave me the strength to say yes. From someplace deep within came a sure knowing that donation was the right thing to do. It was the gutsiest moment of my life.

ELEANOR VINCENT is an award-winning writer whose memoir, Swimming with Maya: A Mother’s Story, was nominated for the Independent Publisher Book Award and was reissued by Dream of Things press early in 2013. She writes about love, loss, and grief recovery with a special focus on the challenges and joys of raising children and letting them go. She is a national spokesperson on grief recovery and organ donation, appearing on radio and television programs around the country.

Eleanor Vincent Book Cover
Click on cover to go straight to Amazon

To connect with Eleanor please click on her sites:

  • Website
  • Facebook
  • Twitter @Eleanor_vincent
  • LinkedIn

***

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

MGS FINAL COVER Small
Click on cover to go to Amazon

Would you like to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” and get published in our 2nd anthology?

Please see guidelines below and contact Sonia Marsh at: sonia@soniamarsh.com for details.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Our January 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” series started with:

  1. Jon Magidsohn
  2. Gillian Jackson

Monday, January 27th, Shirley Showalter will share his “My Gutsy Story®.”

VOTING for your favorite January 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” starts on January 30th and ends on February 12th. Winner will be announced on February 13th.

 

Winner of the December 2013 “My Gutsy Story®” is Laurie Buchanan

January 16, 2014 by Sonia Marsh 5 Comments

We had 5 outstanding “My Gutsy Story®” authors in December, and first I’d like to congratulate all of them. Their stories will be included in our 2nd “My Gutsy Story®” Anthology, published in the Fall of 2014.

Laurie Buchanan
Laurie Buchanan

CONGRATULATIONS to Laurie Buchanan who won the most votes for her “My Gutsy Story®”. Her story was titled, “I thought I was stupid but now I have a PhD.”

Laurie Buchanan
Laurie Buchanan

2nd Place goes to Felicia Johnson who wrote, “How Writing Saved My Life.”

Felicia Johnson
Felicia Johnson

Felicia Johnson shares how writing became her therapy.

Felicia Johnson
Felicia Johnson

3rd Place goes to Jessica O’Gorek. 

The title , “Why I love Crack Cocaine” shocked many readers, but Jessica has been drug-free for over ten years and was written to help and inspire others. She wrote her “My Gutsy Story®” with such honesty.

Jessica O'Gorek
Jessica O’Gorek

In 4th Place, according to the vote count only, we have Marian Beaman’s story. She writes about her “gutsy” stay in the Ukraine, and “Rising Above the Pettiness, to Focus on the Positive.”

Marian Beam
Marian Beaman

Now Ian Mathie’s “My Gutsy Story®” was full of adventure. How often does anyone get to experience riding, and waiting for their camel to return in the desert?  “Waiting for My Camel to Come Back.”

Ian Mathie
Ian Mathie

 

Thank you to all five authors. Your stories are all WINNERS.

***

Do you have a “My Gutsy Story®” you’d like to share?

MGS FINAL COVER Small

Would you like to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” and get published in our 2nd anthology?

Please see guidelines below and contact Sonia Marsh at: sonia@soniamarsh.com for details.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Our January 2014 stories have started with Jon Magidsohn, and Gillian Jackson sharing their “My Gutsy Story®.” Next Monday, January 20th, Eleanor Vincent will share his “My Gutsy Story®.”

 

Next Page »
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Sign up for my Gutsy Updates

Welcome to My New Life

Welcome to My New Life

Do you feel trapped?
Let me Help You Rediscover Your Freedom.
I divorced at 58, and now belong to myself.
If I can do it, so can you!
Let me help you find your purpose and become your own best friend.

Click the cover to buy on Amazon

Recent Posts

  • Single Woman Cruising Solo
  • What Does Self-Love Mean to You?
  • Is Divorce a Gift or a Curse?

Also Available At:

Latest from the blog

  • Single Woman Cruising Solo
  • What Does Self-Love Mean to You?
  • Is Divorce a Gift or a Curse?
  • The Benefits of Traveling Solo
  • Who wants to join me on the Paul Gauguin in Tahiti and Bora Bora?

Top Posts

  • Stop People Pleasing, Start Setting Boundaries
  • Attractive Authors Get More Publicity--Why?
  • Authors: Beware of This Scam
  • How Much Does A Safari Cost?
  • How To Get Your Book Into Costco

Copyright © 2025 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in