Hey guys! I’m Missi Bostedt of Moon Beach Crystals And Gifts! I wanted to start off our blogs with a little bit about me and what got me here. I will state that this writing gets personal and emotional. Although, I do not go into great detail, other than the emotions I felt, if you are triggered AT ALL by grief or abuse, I recommend you do not continue reading.
I have lived in Central Texas my whole life. I have always been creative and artsy. I don't paint as often as I would like though. One of my favorite things is making beautiful resin pieces. Some of those will be available here in this shop. My very favorite happy place, the place that I recharge and reset, is the beach. I am so thankful to live in Central Texas and be only a few hours away from the beach and I can go regularly. I love collecting all kinds of shells, I use these in resin dishes and decorations around our house and I keep my “pocket rocks” in them!
I started seeing a therapist in 2017 (and still going - with no plans of stopping) Through therapy, I was able to make a significant amount of progress with childhood traumas that were causing me to struggle as a wife, a parent, and even as a friend. The most progress has happened this year, I will get back to this further in this writing, but I'd like to take you back a bit to tell you how I got there.
In 2019, I was in North Carolina, and we visited a crystal shop, I had never seen one or even heard of one. As I walked around the store, I picked up a couple of ones that I thought were pretty cool, and I felt things that are so hard to explain. I wish that I had known more about crystals at the time, because I have no idea what I picked up. I thought that feeling was weird and just set them back down. No clue that the sensations I was feeling was any way related to the crystals. Later that year, I was in Corpus Christi on an adventure, and I was told I was likely a natural medium (as in, spirit has made itself known to me my whole life - I don't know a life without paranormal type things happening around me) and I was told that I should look into protecting myself, he shared that he had some crystals on him, as a tool of protection. This truly started my passion for crystals. It started small though, as I wasn't too sure about any of it. Like... "Rocks can help keep me safe and help me heal? What is this nonsense?!”
After lots of research, I decided to go check out the local crystal shop! I fell in love! I got a couple things to start with. Went home, used them in daily practice, then sat down and created a list of crystals that I wanted. Each time I went back to the shop, it never went as planned. I would spend more than I wanted and would almost never get the items I was after, Other crystals would catch my eye, or I would feel more drawn to others; my belief is that it wasn't my time for them. Over the last few years my collection has grown significantly. Specifically, my selection of pocket rocks!! It warms my heart to know that my love for crystals has been passed on to our kids, several friends, and even our granddaughter!
2022 was the year of grief, trauma, and eventually growth.
In January 2022, my mom passed very unexpectedly. My life was over. How could I possibly continue on in this life, without the person that gave me life? This has been very hard on our whole family. 8 days later, my 18+ year old kitty baby passed as well (not so unexpectedly, as she lived a very LONG life), this too was very hard. I was crushed. For almost 3 months I stayed with dad, partially wanting to make sure he was ok, and partially because I couldn't face sleeping in my bed without my cat next to me. Through this time, I had my crystals with me. I carried them in my pockets, in my bra, in my hoodie, and I even held them in my hands and placed them on my body while I slept. I truly leaned into crystals to help with grief. It was during this time, that I started my practice of carrying 5 pocket rocks with me every day, chosen only by 'feeling' which crystals I needed for the day. Why 5? I don't know... because my husband said to me, "How will you know if you lose one if you don't know how many you have on you?" "Oh... good point! I'll carry... um... 5!"
In March, I was notified that the first court event was scheduled to take place for my childhood abuse case. This hit especially hard because my mom told me that she would support me fully and be by myside for every hearing. But with her passing, that was just not possible. (We are still in the process of going through all the court motions, and I have tons of other support here… it’s just not the same)
Come April, I was finally starting to feel 'back to normal-ish'. I returned home, which was hard, but past due. Resituating back at home, after losing my mom and my cat and being gone for almost 3 months, was rather difficult. Losing my mom triggered some other unresolved traumas and I was starting to struggle with more than just grief. I started reading a book called Happy Days: The Guided Path from Trauma to Profound Freedom and Inner Peace by Gabrielle Bernstein. I remember going to the beach alone at the end of April, and I sat and read my book, in my happy place. In the book she references a “Positive Affirmation Meditation” that she created, and I sat there and listened to it over and over and over again, UNTIL her words no longer cut me emotionally like a knife, and I felt like I truly believed “It’s okay to feel good, right now” This was powerful. I left the beach, feeling like it was ok to smile, and laugh, and feel good. Not to carry so much guilt at the slightest thought of being happy. It felt so good. (if you were wondering – I took a bunch of crystals with me too)
On May 27th, the unimaginable happened, our son passed away. This has been insanely hard. Along with grief came massive depression and many, many other emotions. I spiraled downhill and in hurry! I was in a very dark place. Still carrying my crystals with me daily, but it didn't seem to help much. These losses forced me to see some of my childhood traumas and that I needed to continue to heal, so that I could get through these very hard times. I needed more help than just my therapist. Over the next few months, I found other therapies and healing modalities. I went through TMS, saw an EMDR therapist, a psychologist, and also went on the hunt to find a shaman. I was not successful with shaman; however, I did find Reiki (I am now a certified Reiki practitioner and am pursuing further education working towards becoming a reiki master.) Having all of these in place, and learning more and more about crystals, truly helped.
Around August, I started really coming out of the fog and started taking a few trips, to visit friends and family and do some exploring. One of my trips was to North Carolina in September to go crystal mining. This trip was a very emotional and very healing. My love of crystals grew more! I shipped myself 50lbs of rocks! 50 POUNDS!!!! At some point after I came home from this trip, my husband jokingly said something along the lines of "you should open your own shop" I laughed it off, as we own our own business, it has been our primary source of income for 6 years! I also own a small bookkeeping business, and at the time had 2 clients, and I had a part time job that I was about to make full time... How the heck would I have time to start a crystal shop?!
After another trip to the beach a couple weeks later (along with a few visits to a few of the crystal shops there), and loads of support from friends and family, I decided... YEP... I need this. I need a way to share my love of crystals, my journey with crystals, my healing with crystals! I started doing all the research that I could, in what little spare time I had. After many conversations between my husband and I and discussing what this would look like and how we would make it work. We decided to jump in... and just like that... Moon Beach Crystals And Gifts was born. It has been a lot of work to get us to this point. Lots of teamwork, lots of late nights, lots of conversations! We decided this would be a place for people like me and people like you, to find beautiful crystals, lots of information, and lots of love. Although the information will grow slowly through weekly blogs, we fully expect to continue with the same passion for years to come.
I am not saying crystals will heal all of your ailments. But I am saying that learning more about crystals and their properties, setting intentions, and truly relying on the power of crystals, that I was able to make it through the most difficult time in my life... and I truly believe they can help you too!
"One foot in front of the other, with a pocket full of rocks"
Sending you lots of love and healing light,
Missi Bostedt