E V O L

I had the biggest epiphany at work today at my second job.

I work as a mentor at a treatment center and that job is my heart.

Anyways... we were doing this meditating session.

I have been having the worst luck with matters of the heart and "men" (more like boys with their behavior or lack thereof).

You know me. Love is the definition of me. I love love more than anyone. I am a hopeless romantic. The hopeless-est hopeless romantic. My heart is so overflowing with love I cannot comprehend that it hasn't burst or broke after all the heartbreak I've suffered...

Well recently, I've had horror experiences with a few of these boys...

One from the past that was on and off since 2015. The other one I met at an institute class. And the last one I've know since 2012 that we've secretly had a thing for but he is so hot/cold and older and all about his "routine" and I think it's a pathetic excuse for being alone for the rest of his life. I feel sorry for him, actually. He'll never know love...passionate, unconditional, beautiful, maddening, compassionate, and a zillion other adjectives LOVE. True love. His loss. All of their losses.

What is wrong with men these days? They all want one thing and one thing only: they see me a beautiful, gorgeous face with a lovely body and you know what they want next... me. To use me and check me off their lists of conquests. They promise love, forever, marriage. At least the 2015 one. It's all bullshit and lies (excuse my language but after his behavior you would validate my use of profanity). What happened to chivalry, hopeless romance, romance in general, men who want forever, I may not be your first but why can't I be your last? Is love really dead? Is it all a lie? I refuse to settle for broken promises and one night stands. No boy will use me for sick twisted pleasure. I want a best friend who loves me for me in spite of the past and everything. I want a man who will love me as much as I love him. A giver and taker just like me. Equality. Pure, sweet, beautiful, passionate, compassionate, maddening, gorgeous, mind blowing, unconditional, spiritual, all of you love. I WILL NEVER SETTLE AGAIN. I hate myself for losing my first love. We were the closest thing to perfect for one another. However, I was young and listened to all the voices of family and friends instead of my heart and lost him 10 years ago and he will never be back... I have to believe in fate though. Everything happens for a reason. Then there was my abusive temple marriage. Two years of hell. It started out so romantic and lovely and everything I thought I wanted. He was a sweetheart turned into a stranger who hurt me in every possible way. And cheated. The only serious relationship I've had since was with 2015 boy. He's actually a man about 9 years older than me. But his name doesn't deserve to be spoken. He's a coward. A liar. Selfish. I can't believe I fell for his sweet nothings. NEVER AGAIN.

Anyways, we meditated for an hour today and it was so profound...

I discovered there is one thing you cannot buy with all the money in the world, you could spend forever searching and chasing and trying desperately to find it and force it, you can wish on stars til you're blue in the face but you are wasting your time... what is this thing I'm talking about in the twenty first century where everything is available at our fingertips or if you have the money and means?

L O V E

or 

spelled backwards

E V O L

You cannot fight fate. 

Love finds you... when you least expect it. When you aren't looking for it. I believe all I can do is pray to my Heavenly Father that he will lead my future husband to me and continue to live my best life doing what I love and being the best me and advancing with my two jobs and school and writing and if (and I pray with all of me if) love really does exist still in these modern times, He will lead him into my life if I am patient and doing my thing. Making my own happiness. I had a life coach once named Todd Sylvester (Google him he is AMAZING. LIFE CHANGING.) He taught me one of the most important lessons of my life. 

He told me in his office one day as I was crying over loneliness,

"Charley, I love my wife with all my heart, but she doesn't make me happy."

I looked at him like he was insane. Who says that?

Then he said this:

"Don't get me wrong, I love her. She is the love of my life. She enhances my happiness. But I make myself happy. If I wasn't happy on my own, I couldn't be happy with her. You have to be able to be happy by yourself in order to love someone. No one can make you happy but you."

And that lesson changed my life forever.

Thank you to my dear friend Payden for reminding me of this lesson. He was also in treatment with me and saw Todd. It's the truth. You make yourself happy. Then you can be happy with another person. So be happy. Choose happiness. Fight for it. Ignore the haters or naysayers. Be happy everyday. 

I love you all. You are loved. 

"You might not recognize her anymore. Things were different now, she was beginning to make sense of who she was becoming. Sure, it took some time to get here, and maybe she took a few ill advised turns. But the long way isn't always the wrong way. Her route, her rules. Everything that made her beautiful, made her slightly terrifying. She would challenge you, sweet lipped, but with a look that was deliberate.  A gaze with weight, that meant something. Some things can't just be singular. And when they change, it's because they have to. Not to fit in, or stand out, but to survive. You might not have a say in that, or even make sense of it. But she gets it. She understands that she really can be whoever she wants to be, so long as she stays herself. She felt for things, and people, and her dreams wholeheartedly. Some carry so much conviction, and life, that they're never truly alone. You won't take that from her."

-J. Raymond

"I love the way she survived. Survival looked good on her. There were no dark marks under her eyes. Maybe deep inside, but I liked the way she looked through them and laughed at life. She did it gracefully. She'd walked over glass and through fire, but still smiled. And, honestly, I'm not interested in people who haven't lived and died a few times. Who haven't yet had their heart ripped out, or know what it feels like to lose everything. I trust those people, because they stand for something. I knew what she'd been through."

-J. Raymond

"She's falling in love with herself again she's learning once more what it means to be happy on her own."

-r.h Sin

"And maybe, for now, a happy ending doesn't include a relationship. Maybe it's you, on your own, picking up the pieces and starting over, freeing yourself up for something better in the future. Maybe the happy ending is just moving on."

"You are not his princess.

You are your own queen."

-Nikita Gill

"Be alone. Eat alone, take yourself on dates, sleep alone. In the midst of this you will learn about yourself. You will grow, you will learn about yourself. You will grow, you will figure out what inspires you, you will curate your own dreams, your own stunning clarity, and when you do meet the person who makes your cells dance, you will be sure of it, because you are sure of yourself."

"There's so much more to life than being sad over someone who doesn't. There's a lot of wonderful time to be spent discovering yourself and it doesn't need to be empty or painful. You need to fill yourself up with love. Not anyone else. Become a whole being on your own. Go on adventures, fall asleep in the woods with friends, wander around the city at night, write on bathroom stalls, sit in a coffee shop on your own, leave notes in library books, dress up for yourself, give to others, smile a lot. Do all things with love. Life for yourself and be happy on your own. It isn't any less beautiful, I promise."

-Emery Allen

"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world."

-Lucille Ball

"Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love."

-Brene Brown

"Why should we worry about what others think of us, do we have more confidence in their opinions than we do our own?"

-Brigham Young

<W/L3

Charley Brooke

The Story of The USA Princess

"For last year's words belong to last year's language (and last journal's pages) [the past]. And next year's words (and the blank pages and spaces of this journal) await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."

-T.S. Eliot & C.B. Chriswell (me)

Tuesday October 10, 2017

My name is Charley. I was just an ordinary girl in a small city in Idaho (Pocatello) that you have never heard of. [Trust me, you aren't missing much]. It was in this city I was born and raised there until July 2016 when Utah became my new residence. Pocatello isn't home to me... at least not anymore. 

     Yes this is the story, my story, of an ordinary in seemingly every way until everything changed and became extraordinary in the form of life altering, heavenly, life saving miracles. I lost my way. I lost trust. I lost myself. I lost the first boy I ever loved ten years ago. I lost my husband. I lost my determination, hope, goals, dreams, freedom, happiness, and nearly lost my mind. 

     BUT I [painfully, impossibly, through loneliness, prayer, faith, treatment, girls and guys I met in treatment, endurance, the gospel, the Atonement of my Savior Jesus Christ, love, repentance, therapy, and my closest family and friends] FOUND MYSELF, was rebuilt stronger, GREW, became closer to Heavenly Father and the Savior, never gave up, chose resilience, inspired others, shared my story, rose above the pain of the past- the so called "baggage" and abuse and low self esteem, lived by love, and badass princessed, and that was EVERYTHING (and oh-so-much more!)

     God is good, the Atonement is perfect, forgiveness and unconditional love are the point, and I am becoming stronger and better with each passing second. I am a badass princess--The USA Princess: Princess Charley Brooke of the USA after all 🙂

     Even when you feel invisible and death is tempting you because you want to die and end it all, commit suicide, to end your silent but real pain, you have to remember how far you've come and the glorious, limitless future that awaits you. Oh my goodness, life is beautiful and the world wouldn't be the same if you didn't exist. You are probably thinking who is this cheery princess girl to tell me this bright and shiny nonsense? What does she know? Please take it from me, the girl who tried to commit suicide countless times. My last attempt being Thursday June 23, 2016. I was 25 years young. I shot myself (twice--the gun recoiled) and DIED right when I arrived by ambulance to the hospital. People say I was lucky. No, it was a miracle. Miraculously, I was saved. A group of talents surgeons worked for 72 minutes to bring me back to life and saved my life. I was given a second chance. Sadly, not everyone has the same happy ending.

     I'm FAR from perfect, but I am striving, trying, thriving, and in it with my whole heart. 

     I survived for a reason. It wasn't my time to die.

     We can make our own heaven on Earth. 

C H O O S E H A P P Y

"To me, a rich and satisfying life means one full of contrast. Give me sleep ins. And soft rains. Relaxing conversation. But also adrenaline and adventure. And dancing under the stars. I am determined to embrace this extravagant life for all that it has to offer."

-Beau Taplin//A Disparate Life

"I promise you sweet soul with stars in your eyes, you were put here with a purpose."

Lovelies, I hope twenty nineteen is as wonderful to you as it has been to me. I've been making life 

happen instead of letting it pass me by and happen to me. I am doing better than I ever was to quote Taylor Alison Swift. 

Feel free to follow me on the Gram

Charley's IG: @theusaprincess

My Taylor Swift Fan IG: @idabotaylorswift (for my fellow #swifties out there!)

I love you. You're beautiful every little piece of you. Loveliest ever.

I am so wonderstruck to be back Nation! Writing and blogging again. I have missed it and you 💛