THE HEART ROCK RANCH

Slowing down

By Kathryn Meloy

Nov 4th, 2023

 

Introduction: Welcome everyone to our humble abode we call, The Heart Rock Ranch. My name is Kathryn Meloy, and this is my wonderful husband, Glen.

 

Today, we are supporting Operation Phantom Support and musicians Rippleberry. You will hear from them in just a bit. We are so excited to be holding our second Giving Heart Music Series event. I see a few return Heart Rock Ranchers out there…I guess that means y’all had fun last year. Thanks so much for your friendship and support!

 

For those of you who are new, Glen and I moved here two years ago from Round Rock. We knew we wanted to do something "bigger than us" here, so last March we held our first Giving Heart Music Series. Our goal was to have 40 attendees and we had 42! WhooHoo! The event was small, but a big success in our eyes. We supported our first musician Michael Ingalls and Angel Wings Ranch charity. Michael is here with us today to support his music peers and this great cause. We are glad you and your gal Roxanne came out today.

 

For this event, we set a goal of 60 attendees. We felt by increasing the capacity and minimum donation it would help put a little bit more change in the charities and musician's pockets. This goal seemed ambitious considering we don’t know very many people here yet so we bravely turned to the public. If you are one of those people we randomly met out and about, thank you for coming. I know it’s hard to trust people these days and I hope after you leave today you feel inspired to keep following your heart.

 

Speech: I must admit there is a lot that goes into planning this grassroots event, but hey, Glen loves practicing music, and I…well...I like to work hard! Glen even wrote a song about my work ethic called “A new kind of date”, some of you know it as the Home Depot song.

 

Anyway, I just want to say, not everybody has to set their eyes on such ambitious goals as we have. I would like to encourage each of you to come up with one small goal today that you feel would positively impact your community. We impact our friends and family every day, but what about the strangers around us?

 

It could be something as small as helping an elderly person find their car at HEB parking lot. We’ve all been there forgotten before and may feel embarrassed or vulnerable, perhaps help them through those feelings. Make the journey with them, you might learn something about him or her, or more importantly, something about yourself. 

 

Maybe your goal could something like being better at calling people back in a timelier manner or just calling to tell them that you love them. You know... my friend Tammy actually called me out of the blue, with no agenda just to tell me how much she appreciates our friendship, and it meant the world to me. That kind of call can really lift someone's spirit and warm their heart.

 

Perhaps the goal could be as simple as getting up a little earlier to write down things we are thankful for, even when life seems upside down.  there is always something to be grateful for. For instance, seeing a beautiful sunset, being able to work with your hands or walk with your feet, or having the ability to tune out my speech…HA HA! OK, for those of you who laughed, thank you for listening, and for those who didn’t, that's ok, they’re just exercising that ability now. (tough crowd LOL!).

 

My Mother In Law is fantastic about expressing gratitude every day. She actually flew in from Maryland last night for this event!! Stand Up Catherine! (Clapping) Ya’ll want to know something funny? Both our names are Kathryn Meloy, but she spells her name wrong (LOL) but seriously how randomly cool is that to have the same name!!

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Interestingly enough, these small goals I have mentioned today are very attainable and really boils down to just slowing down. I feel we are living in such a fast-paced sworld; we often lose sight of taking care of one another.

 

I guess what I’m trying to say is we should all try to do our best to brighten the day of everyone around us.

 

Speaking of goals, let’s get this show on the road, shall we!