"Not understanding or too fearful to find out what was possible, I clung to our union for dear life before I realized that I did not need to only survive.
- Jo Dibblee, Frock Off; Living Undisguised
For me personally, studying Jo Dibblee's memoir,'' Frock Away; alive Undisguised, was like reading The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Both novels were a true eye-opener in terms of exactly what a few kids have to survive at the hands of their parents... and yet, despite this kind of rocky beginning, nevertheless figure out how to get their lives back on course.
Together with parents tormented by secrets, shame and guilt, as a young kid Jo Dibblee learned fast how to shield herself.
With hope and humour, Jo shares the harrowing rollercoaster of her entire life story and provides the low-down on frocking - the way she discovered it and used it to endure, how she discovered it had been holding her back and exactly what she needed to perform, once and for all, to eliminate those frocks.
I discovered it a wonder that Jo physically endured her incredible youth - let alone learned to flourish in the way she's. But flourish she's... and is still an inspiration for many - both for who she is AND what she does.
I crossed paths with Jo at 2008, when I had been talking at a women's media event. Afterward we went our different ways. Eight decades later, our paths crossed again in another event in another city - and I was amazed to hear Jo's narrative. I instantly ordered her novel.
Despite all she's been - or maybe because of that she's been Jo is unstoppable in her devotion to allowing girls to achieve their greatest potential.
To"frock-off" means to lose whatever it is that's holding us back into life. Our"frocks" are the lies we tell ourselves or they are sometimes the truths out of our past which are no longer serving us. Our frocks are our storiesour explanations our embarrassmentsour customs, our working mechanisms, our anxieties, our situation, our limiting beliefs.
It, there's a likely a frock or two at the majority of our closets which should most likely be awarded the heave-ho. There was in mine... and studying Jo's memoir has been a significant reminder it isn't what happens to people that matters almost as far as how we choose to react. For it's obviously an option whether to throw or keep that which we no more desire.