Good morning and welcome to create with heidi. I'm Heidi Kaisand owner of Hen and Chicks studio in conrad iowa and lover of all things creative each week here on create with heidi we like to cover topics that educate and inspire you about how people are being creative whether it's quilting scrapbooking food wool or just hanging out with others who seem to have their creative mojo grooving in all the right directions we are excited to share these things with you as you know each week i like to start our program with a quote or a statement as i think today is more of a statement than it is an actual quote it is we don't meet people by accident they are meant to cross our path for a reason and our guest today is marci stone good morning marcy
Learning to Live Your Best Life
Heidi Kaisand
Eugenia Battaglia
hello Heidi how are you today
Heidi Kaisand
i'm good today thank you how are you
Marcy Stone
i am good
Heidi Kaisand
and i believe marcy you are one of those people that that again it's not an accident and i'm not sure that i know all of why you have our paths have crossed but i feel like we're off for having just met you a few weeks ago really maybe two months ago i guess at this point but that our paths are crossing for a multitude of reasons and i'm excited to learn more about you and what you're doing in your life and i know you're interested in learning more about what i'm doing in my life and that's that's an exciting way to start a friendship is
Marcy Stone
i'm so excited to get to know you better to heidi and i just have to say how much it blessed me to stay at your retreat center and be in your store and just be in the presence of you and the people that work there because there is so much creative energy that flows from each of you so thank you oh thank you marcy and wasn't that just a happy coincidence
Heidi Kaisand
let's let's kind of give everybody the brief is that we had had a retreat cancel at the last minute and you put out a kind of a 411911 i don't know what you would say that you were looking for a place to basically take a class that was very intense but you needed wifi and you needed space and and you reached out and said do you know anywhere and and by chance the retreat center was open and it was perfect for what you need it it was perfect it really it was it will always be a sacred space to me because of what i experienced and learned there so thank you so much for that oh well marcy we're so glad you got to come well let's dive in to a little bit more about you and what you are up to right now why don't you tell people about some of the projects and things that you're that you're working on
Marcy Stone
well i am currently starting to offer book studies and life coaching christian life coaching i'm a former pastor and so that sort of just comes out in me and it's such an important part of my journey as you know and so i want to offer the same hope that i have found in in through that to other people so my goal the last couple of years as i've continued to heal which i'm sure we'll touch on a little bit more as we as we have our conversation here but as i've continued to grow stronger the the mission that i feel called to is to self create what it would be like to live on earth as it is in heaven and so i'm offering creative ways to do that to explore that for people to begin to enter into that sort of peaceful flowing life that they would desire to have here on earth oh absolutely i think that every day we all strive to be better people and to be kinder to other people and to ourselves there's so many different ways that we can improve our lives on on this earth yes that's right i think sometimes for myself anyway as a christian i kept clinging to it's going to be so awesome in heaven and it is going to be so awesome in heaven however there are things that we can do here on earth because that is what god calls us to in scripture jesus is clear But he came so that we would have life and life abundantly. And so that is my goal is to experience life abundantly and help others do the same.
Heidi Kaisand
And when you talk about living abundantly, are is there an example that you can give us? Like, I'm going to be, you know, joke around here just a little bit, is living abundantly making sure that the, you know, sweet potato, french fries are piled up abundantly on my plate? Or because I love those, or, you know, we know what kinds of things are you doing to live life abundantly?
Marcy Stone
Oh, thank you for asking that. That's a great clarifying question. You know, I think some days, there's nothing wrong with it being the pile of sweet potato fries. I personally meet you. Not every day, not every day. So for me, I've experienced that through relationship, connection, community, and service. So I spent six years, pretty much in bed, I was sick with Lyme disease, and found out that I actually had had that as a chronic condition for many, many years had passed it on to two of my three children without knowing that. And so it really had a season of turmoil and depression and feeling of defeat. And about a year and a half ago, I started feeling better. And as I have begun to grow stronger, and kind of embrace this new lease on life that I feel I've been given. I have found this desire to want to live abundantly in all areas of life. So the sweet potato fries, once were cutting it for me, you know, that was abundance for me, but it is no more. So living in joy and peace and laughter in harmony with others. Now, let me say I don't succeed at this 100% of the time. I'm still growing and learning like we all are, and I fail consistently. However, I am making progress as I continue to learn and grow. And so for me, that looks like how can I serve others? How can I spread love? That is the most important call on our lives, right is to add love to love one another.
Heidi Kaisand
Absolutely. Well, Marcy, we're off to a great start. We're gonna take a quick commercial break and we'll be back right after this. Hey hen and chicks studio and Conrad was recently announced as winner of the Association for Creative Industries best brick and mortar Retailer Award. This prestigious award recognizes excellence in industry service and philanthropy Henan chicks studio is a full service bookshop and retreat center for quilters and scrapbookers Heidi Kaisand, owner of Hen and chicks was honored to receive the award and thanks to all of her wonderful customers for making the award possible. Heidi invites you to visit her award winning store and then check studio in beautiful downtown Conrad.
Heidi Kaisand
Welcome back to create with Heidi, this is Heidi Kaisand and we're having a lovely conversation with Marcy stone of Marcy stone.ministries.com that is your website. Correct, Marcy. That's right. Thank you. And we'll be sure to put a link to that both on our website with the podcast as it appears you know, when it appears later, it said that that people can and I think it's been in some of the social media and stuff but Marsh Marcy stone and that's Mar see why than stone like rock stone ministries.com and no pun intended there but maybe that stone is like the the rock or the the fortress that so often we think of with Jesus is that he's our rock. You know, there you are at your mercy stone ministries, you know, Marcy the rock stone, I'm gonna give you a new nickname.
Marcy Stone
Well, thank you. No one's ever called me the rock before. But I'll take it. Heidi. It's a compliment doubt. I agree. Yeah.
Heidi Kaisand
All right. So as we are living abundantly, you know, what are some things that in relationships, we might do to live abundantly with those around us whether they are close relationships, like our spouse or our children, or, you know, people that we meet along the way?
Marcy Stone
Good question. I think that for my own experience has been that when you get to know somebody at an intimate level, and I mean, even those people that you are closely connected to your spouse, your children, the people that you're in connection and community with every single day, we can be in just a surface level relationship, even with those people, where we go through the mundane tasks of the day, that we don't really connect intimately. And that can be done even with strangers, you know, through genuine conversation through either icon in fact, especially right now, that is crucial, because we've all been craving, presence of one another, right? And having to Oh, and even even, don't you notice, I mean, like the the other day, somebody turned around at me and looked at me in a store, and I smiled, and then I thought, they can't see my smile, they can't see that I'm, I'm, you know, trying to reflect back to them, what I'm seeing in them. And it's, it's, it's so important right now the eye contact is so important, because that's all people are seeing. Correct and our words, what we're saying has tremendous power right now, whether it's written word through social media, or text, or emails, or written word if anybody does that much anymore, right? Right, actually, with a pen on paper, or through the words that we speak with one another, and even our body language, including our eye contact, as you mentioned, that that all has great connective power and energy. And we have such a source of love. In every action that we make, if we choose for it to be, we get to choose. And I think along with that comes looking at yourself. So how you're using your own love for yourself. And for others in your own energy, we get to choose everyday what our emotions are going to be, we get to choose what we're going to act on. We can't always choose our feelings. Those can fly through our mind, our thoughts fly through our mind, you know, uncontrollably at times, but we do get to choose what stays in there and what we focus on meditate on we build our life around.
Heidi Kaisand
Oh my gosh, you know, powerful words. And as the mother of three teenagers at the moment, two girls and a boy, I can't tell you how those words echo in my head right now of, of the importance of being able to choose and and and I'm wearing my necklace today that says choose happy? Because it is it's a choice. It's a choice. And I want to be happy every day. And sometimes sometimes that's harder than others to to be reflecting that. It is it can be difficult. And the truth is we make it harder than it needs to be definitely. Oh, yeah.
Marcy Stone
Yes, yeah. Absolutely.
Heidi Kaisand
Absolutely. And so in your, in the Marcy stone ministries, and in your your, I'll say future here, what you're trying to do, how are you reaching out to people you're doing, you're doing counseling, or coaching, maybe coaching is a better word,
Marcy Stone
I would call it coaching. And the difference being that we're looking forward, right. So of course, anytime that we want to grow, and we look forward, we do reflect a little bit on our past and who we are. So that also goes along with being intimate connection with other people, we have to understand who they are. And some of that comes with personality, some of that comes with, you know, what we choose to do with our time, our hobbies, our energy, our focus, I think that having that as information that we take in and truly listen to other people about and be willing to learn ourselves, connects us in the way that we're really called to connect.
Heidi Kaisand
In a lot of times, we do have to look inward before we can before we can grow. And I've had, I've had this conversation so many times and said this so many times is that is that I cannot change somebody else. I cannot change their actions, but I can change me and how I react to them. I'm gonna say you kind of play off something you said they're the people I surround myself with the you the activities I surround myself with, are part of that. growing and, and making sure that I'm doing what I can to be the best person, the happiest person filled with joy kind of thing. Versus I can't go out and say, find a stranger on the street and say, Oh, you need to change this, you need to do that.
Marcy Stone
Yes, but I could be behind it and maybe my kindness will change them.
Heidi Kaisand
So true. And even with the people closest in our lives when we start doing self bought self growth, emotional intelligence, you know, seeking our own wisdom about ourselves.
Marcy Stone
We start then to have an impact on the people around us. And so a lot of times we come to a place of prayer and he Even grows of wanting to say, Well, if this person would do this, and that person would do that, you know, we'll listen to a great teaching and think oh, so and so's really needs to hear this, right? But God is really using it to speak to us, and we cannot change anyone else, even the people we're closest to. And so we get to change ourselves, we get to change how we take in information, how we process it, and how we give it back to the world. And in looking at that, it will change everything. And so that's what we do. When we do life coaching, I offer small group coaching, so that we use a mastermind approach where we help one another. So we may work in groups of three to five, and have some goals that we set that we want to work toward, maybe it's strengthening your marriage, maybe it's strengthening relationship with your children, perhaps it's just wanting to be the best you that you can be. In all of those areas. We're constantly looking at ourselves, and what we can do to grow closer to Christ and then grow closer to others through that. So that's what we offer and then one on one as well with me and small group teachings. So he's got a book study.
Heidi Kaisand
Oh, yeah, well, and you know what, we're going to take a quick commercial break. And when we come back, we're going to talk about your book study because it's one of my favorite books insane. So hang on, and we'll be back right after this. Hen and chicks studio and Conrad was recently announced as winner of the Association for Creative Industries best brick and mortar Retailer Award. This prestigious award recognizes excellence in industry service and philanthropy henna chick studio is a full service bookshop and retreat center for quilters and scrapbookers Heidi Kaisand, owner of Hen and chicks was honored to receive the award and thanks all of her wonderful customers for making the award possible. Heidi invite you to visit her award winning store hen and chick studio in beautiful downtown Conrad.
Heidi Kaisand
Welcome back to create with Heidi. And Marcy, I just have to let you know that I've gotten a text message during the break that your your message is resonating with people. And I'd love to hear that, I'd love to hear that. That just by being together today, you and I maybe are making a difference in somebody else's life. And I love that. So so thank you for joining me. And, and one of the one of the things that I Marie Forleo is an is a oh my gosh, what is she's multi, you know, marketer, teacher, I don't you know, there's so many different things we could call her, but she wrote a book called everything is figure out a ball. And I think that phrase alone is is golden. Because everything is figured out a ball, it may not be the result, or the answer might not be what we thought it was going to be, or the path we take might not be what we thought. But everything can be figured out figured out. And I love that. And I'm assuming you must have loved it too, because you're doing a book study on it.
Marcy Stone
I am and I do love it. And I'll tell you one reason that this book resonated with me is that in that season where I was struggling so much with my health, I had decided that my call might just be to live to die. But that was my call, I was called to die and get died gracefully and show people that it could be done without fear. And so I spent many years doing just that. First I thought, well, I'm called to heal and show everyone how you can get through this disease and heal. And then I thought though, I'm called to die. And so I'll do that gracefully. And now I'm realizing Wait, We're all called to live, live abundantly, not just live getting by until we die, like to live each and every day full depending on how, regardless, excuse me, regardless of how much time we have left. So one of the things I loved about the book is that it it really reiterates that same concept that everything figure out about even the things that aren't figure out a bowl, because sometimes that is the part that we figure out is to just let it be. But she has such gratefully Forleo has such a unique way of encouraging us to look outside the box and rather than look at things as a victim, we look at it as a problem to solve. And boy that shifts your energy and,
Heidi Kaisand
and a friend of both yours and mine, Beth she always uses the phrase now we get to figure something out. And and when when I feel like I might be stuck in a situation in my business. I'm like, you know what this is? This is something I get to do. How lucky am I that my business that is growing and I get to get to tackle this challenge, you know, in a relationship, it might be me on, and I'm gonna just because it's again, a topic in our house this morning. Not Not every teenage girl is kind. And and so I've we're having conversations about, you know this is figure out a bowl, but it's but it's about relationships, it's about understanding what they're saying and how you react to it. And, and being realistic in in what is being said and what the situation is. I know I'm talking, you know, big picture, but everything is figured out about that, that I know. Yeah, it really is. It's a How are you handling that you brought that up? How are you handling the book study? Is it is it so like, we potentially have people listening from all over the world because this constrain lives. So we don't know, you know, if you're located in Des Moines, but do you have to be in Des Moines, Iowa, you have to even be in Iowa to participate.
Marcy Stone
You do not, we're doing it through zoom. So it's being offered on Wednesdays, starting next week starts April 1, which is tomorrow, as you know. And so Wednesdays next week, from 12 to 1pm, to over the lunch hour. And on Thursdays, starting this week, from eight to 9pm. Okay, and so we will be really taking that hour and it will be fast paced and power packed full of excitement and energy and launching us forward into our lives as we look at the chapters of this book. And this book is