"The hotel door slammed in my face, leaving me in a pool of tears. Abandoned. In a strange room, in a strange town, I had found my runaway husband…but now, he had walked out the door again, disappearing into the night air. It was more than a closed door; it was a closed chapter. 28 years of marriage, over.

So as a single midlife, empty-nest, woman, who had never experienced life alone, my purpose in life became… well…to discover my purpose in life.  Who am I now? What do I do? Where do I belong? How can I heal? My confidence was at an all-time low, and my self-esteem shattered. I hadn’t realized that My identity was falsely built on my titles: wife, mom, pastor, ministry leader, and dog mom, but with divorce, everything was wiped clean, I didn’t know myself.

My heart was broken. I was also angry. I felt like a soldier on the battlefield whose fellow fighters were told to retreat. I stood alone, or so it seemed, to figure out my place in this world.

And so I began, to chase my healing because honestly, dying an old bitter, forsaken, lonely woman hadn’t been on my bucket list.

There was a book to write, a business to start, a romance to experience, and a new life vision, waiting for me to grasp. All I needed was for my fragile heart to become BRAVE.

For the next year, I gave myself to healing…searching scriptures, prayer, meditation, writing, and journaling. Eventually, I discovered what I now call the 5 Fortitudes (necessary steps to REINVENT and LIVE A BRAVE VISION). More than the right attitude I needed fortitude—strength of spirit, mind, and body."