Stop and ask yourself: What would Molly Brown do?
It is only in the last few years that I have found some fabulous examples of fearless females. Women living in adverse times who followed their intuition and their calling. Women who embrace their divine feminine, the intuitive and creative side, but also their divine masculine, the doing and taking action to create change. One of these ladies was Molly Brown. You may remember her from the Titanic movie. She was the loudest lady on the ship. Whilst in Denver I visited the Molly Brown Museum. What an inspiring lady. Someone who broke the rules, spoke her truth in a time when it wasn’t ‘accepted’. We often hear people telling us to speak our truth. In a time where it is more acceptable for you to be you why do people still struggle to be themselves? How difficult can it be to remove the conditions that society has imposed upon you? What does it take to break free of the boundaries you have set upon yourself? Will it take a breakdown? Will it take an aha moment? How big do these moments need to be before you start living the life you were born to live? Human connection is so important. I could have cried listening to the story of Margaret ( Molly) Brown.
Born into poverty to Irish Catholics in Missouri, she left school at 14. she decided to move to Colorado at 18 to live with her siblings. She married James Joseph Brown and had 2 children. Her husband worked mining silver then the silver market bottomed out. Her husband had a feeling that he could find gold and offered to work for free. His intuition paid off and he struck gold and they became millionaires overnight, but this didn’t change Molly Brown. She had servants and at that time they were expected to eat in separate quarters. Molly Brown invited her servants to eat with them as a family and also encouraged them to learn the languages the children were learning so as to prepare them for other work. Margaret Brown spent a lot of time giving back to the community. She ran for Senate several times but didn’t get in as women didn’t have the vote at that time. She was instrumental in helping women achieve the vote. Colorado was the first state where women got the vote. She taught herself several languages and was fluent in them. In 1909 James & Margaret signed a separation agreement. This was at a time when divorce was frowned upon. In 1912 Margaret Brown was travelling in Egypt when she received a telegram to say her grandson was ill and she needed to get back home. She boarded HMS Titanic. When it began to sink, she was annoyed at how few people were in the boats and started telling the crew they needed to fill them. She refused to get into a lifeboat, instead helping others in first. Apparently, two men then picked her up and dropped her 4ft over the edge into lifeboat number 6. She was with 24 women and 2 men. She told them that in order to survive the night they would all take it in turns to row the boat to keep warm. When RMS Carpathia came to rescue them, all of the passengers in her boat were alive.
Once on board the rescue ship, she helped translate for the 3rd class passengers and organised a fundraiser for the survivors of the ship. She wrote down the names of the families who were donating money and a list of the families who weren’t. She then left this list in the dining room hall. Those who weren’t donating quickly changed their mind and their names were crossed off the list. Margaret Brown raised $10,000 from this. When she arrived back in New York she raised another $10,000 and was made president of the Titanic Survivors Association. She decided quite late in life that she wanted to be an actress and went off to train in drama. She became the actress that she had always wanted to be. In 1932 she passed away in her sleep.
Having visited the house and reading what little I did about her, she came across as a strong and independent woman in her time. A woman who wasn’t afraid to rock the apple cart. A woman who spoke her truth, in a time when most didn’t like to hear the truth. A woman who refused to wear a corset and instead took up boxing in her garage! A woman who I believe inspired many and continues to do so to this day. To me this woman is hugely inspirational. To have gone through so much at a time where we didn’t have all of the self care tools, awareness and support we do now, to me is just awesome. I know there are many ladies in history who are strong and have empowered other women. Women who have inspired, led and brought women together into a community. To all those women I have huge respect. I admire them for their bravery and courage. To stand up in the face of adversity and to be true to their truths. What’s stopping you? Why do you feel the need to please others? Setting boundaries and standing up for ourselves makes us stronger. We dig deep and look into our hearts. Who are you?
If you are feeling challenged or afraid to go against the grain stop and ask yourself what would Molly Brown do? I carry a keyring with this phrase on to remind myself to be fearless in times of adversity.
We can speak our truth.
We can rock the apple cart.
We can inspire.
The Journey 
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