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Grit ‘n’ Grace — The Podcast

Ep #293: Come Out of Hiding—Your Invitation to Step into Healing

Have you ever felt boxed in? Maybe by life, grief, expectations, or old labels you just can’t seem to shake? Well today, Danielle Grosse returns as my co-host, along with a group of our friends, as we explore what it means to step into healing – even when it feels unfamiliar or downright risky.
You’ll hear how one powerful story is helping women tend to the hurting parts of their hearts in unexpected ways, and how realizing “You don’t live in a box now.” can change everything.
If your own HSP heart longs for gentle hope, safe connection, and the courage to believe that your healing has already begun, this episode is for you!

[Intro music]

Welcome to Grit‘n’Grace – The Podcast for Highly Sensitive Christian Women!
I’m your host, Cheri Gregory.
Are you tired of the overthinking, overwhelm, and exhaustion that can come with being a Highly Sensitive Person?
Are you ready to stop worrying that something’s wrong with you, and start understanding and nurturing yourself as an HSP?
Together, we’ll build resilience, practice self-compassion, set healthy boundaries, unlock your creativity, and learn to embrace – not fight – your God-given sensitivity.
Let’s dig in!
Hey friend,

I’m so glad you could join me today!
You know, as an author, there’s something unforgettable about holding your very first book. Your hands are literally shaking, and your heart’s like, “Wait, I actually made this?!”
But honestly? There’s something just as special – and maybe even more sacred – about holding the book of one of my coaching clients. Especially when I’ve witnessed her wrangle the words, wrestle with God, and keep on going when it would’ve been so much easier to just quit.
And right now, I’m holding this absolutely beautiful hardcover edition of The Boy, the Boxer, and the Yellow Rose: Because You’re Never Truly Lost, You’re Healing.
It’s written by Danielle Grosse, who joined me as co-host back in Episode #286.
And friend, this book isn’t just a lovely read – it’s a lifeline for women who feel stuck in grief, pressure, or old patterns that they’re ready to heal from. It’s tender, it’s true, and it’s filled with hope.
Turning over my hardbound copy of The Boy, the Boxer, and the Yellow Rose: Because You’re Never Truly Lost, You’re Healing, here’s what it says on the back:
“This is the sweet story of a college student sent to pick up a dog for his parents only to discover a frightened boxer abandoned in a crate, left behind by the very people who were supposed to love him.
The boy doesn’t walk away.
He kneels.
He stays.
And together they begin a quiet journey of healing neither of them expected.
With more than 100 expressive drawings, The Boy, the Boxer, and the Yellow Rose is a Christian fable told with gentle honesty that explores the sacred space between pain and hope: that place where love shows up and refuses to let go.
Tucked within its pages are dozens of healing truths for anyone who’s ever felt boxed in by heartbreak, loneliness, or sorrow too deep to name. If something in this story feels achingly familiar, if you’ve been holding it together on the outside but quietly falling apart on the inside, please don’t stay hidden; you don’t even have to whisper ‘Come find me.’ because love is already on its way. It’s right here in these pages, ready to meet you where you are, and walk with you toward healing.”
Now, you’re about to hear something I’ve never done before. It’s a roundtable conversation from inside the Clarity in Your Calling Mastermind, which is the group coaching program I facilitate for HSP Christian writers, speakers, and coaches.

And during the Mastermind meeting that happened right after Dani’s book released, we did a live taping of Grit‘n’Grace as Dani pulled back the curtain and gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how The Boy, the Boxer, and the Yellow Rose came to be.
So you’re gonna hear first impressions from HSP Christian women like you and me who found themselves tearing up and sending screenshots of favorite lines to their friends and buying multiple copies to share, all because this beautiful book spoke so deeply to their own healing journeys.
As you listen in to this part of our conversation, I hope you’ll especially notice how the story itself gently models something we Highly Sensitive People often need most: the courage to come out of hiding and step toward connection.
Cheri Gregory
Well, welcome, good to see everybody this morning. So Dani, by any chance, is this going to be your first podcast interview about your book?

Danielle Grosse
It actually is, and what a great place to do it, right?

Cheri Gregory
Well, we are so honored if we could just kind of imagine ourselves all sitting around the same kitchen table or living room or favorite coffee shop, and we each had our hardback copies of the book, and we could all just be kind of squee-ing together.

How did you feel as you read The Boy, the Boxer, and the Yellow Rose? How did it speak to you personally? And/or what’s a favorite line or two that you’d like to share from the book, and why is it a favorite?

Sandra.

Sandra Littlejohn
My favorite quote from the book is one of the lessons, and it’s “And then Mac dog learned we often give to others what we long to receive ourselves.” And I actually screenshot it, and I’ve shared it with a few people, and just said, “You know, this really spoke to me today,” and it did, because I think I always wanted to be the kind of mom that I felt like I wanted or needed, and I’ve tried to be the friend that I think I want. And even though I think I do a good job in those areas, sometimes it makes me long more. And having to sit with that with Jesus, I think that’s why that spoke to me. It’s like another tap on the shoulder from Him of saying, “I’m the one who can help you with that.”

Cheri Gregory
Love that, love that.

Kristine.

Kristine Crumb
There were a number of times that brought me to tears. But there was a line that I stopped and I re-read it, and it was after he was realizing that by helping somebody, that person could then help someone else. And it just touched me because it said “The boy feels a river of love escape from the corner of his eyes. It runs down his cheeks, dripping off his chin.” And it just touched me that this writer knows there are different kinds of tears and different aspects of emotion, and it was so powerful as I connected to what’s happening in the story and then this sentence, I just wanted to capture it, because it was so beautiful.

Cheri Gregory
Pam.

Pam Watts
On Monday, I Voxed Dani and Cheri, and you will both recall that I had an incredible, immediate and powerful response to the book, and I had let y’all know as soon as I got it, I read through it right away, which I never do, with emails, ever, ever, ever. And so I had given you both a heads up, ‘Here’s what my reaction was,’ and I sent you a very long and rambly and teary and breathy Vox. But in preparation for today, I kind of narrowed that down and synthesized it. And I just wanted to share with you directly where I landed as I tried to communicate in a more articulate way, that very breathy, teary Voxer. And so here’s what I have to share.

‘Dani, your book hit me straight in the heart. I finished it in tears. One of the first things I told you was ‘It’s so hard, if not practically impossible, to grieve while we are in the box. Perhaps it’s grieving that helps us come off; the tears that tear down the walls, if you will. Could it be, while grief may drive us into the box, it is grieving that lets us out?’ And then it hit me even deeper. I don’t just hide in my box. I hide my box from others, and I’ve made my box too small to let others in. And that was when God, in His gentle way, reminded me, “You will never make it small enough to keep me out.” And that’s what your book did for me, Dani, it invited me to stop hiding my grief, my box and myself. You shared lessons from a mended soul, and in doing so, gave mine permission to begin mending too.’

Cheri Gregory
Rhonda

Rhonda Abellera
I just have to read this little part, because it goes in with the lesson. It really spoke to me, and I’ll tell you why in a minute. “His companion hangs his head. ‘I got scared,’ he says. ‘Of what?’ ‘Of what might happen if you quit loving me.’ The boy falls to his knees. He puts his arms around Mac dog’s neck and buries his face in his fur. Mac dog nuzzles the boy’s ear, and then Mac dog learned, even when fear makes a mess of things, real love doesn’t walk away.” Boom. Life message here for me. And not only do I love the lesson and I love the illustrations, but I feel like, Mac dog’s a real dog. You just – you – I’m like, I’d love to meet this dog.

Cheri Gregory
Leslie, go ahead.

Leslie Newman
I had so many favorite quotes from the book that I couldn’t pick, it was hard to pick. So what I’m going to share is my first favorite quote that came to me as I first started the book; and it was as the boy and the dog were in the car riding, have newly met each other, and it says, “As the pickup truck rolls down the road, the rescued dog lifts his head, he looks up at the boy with a grateful expression. Then he wags his nub of a tail and nudges the boy’s hand with his nose. ‘What should I name you?’ the boy asks, scratching the dog’s ear. ‘Boxer,’ the dog says, ‘because I had to live in a box.’ ‘You don’t live in a box now.’ ‘But I did. It’s who I am.’ ‘That’s ridiculous. It’s not who you are. It’s just your breed. Isn’t that a little ironic?’ The boy sighs and glances down at the dog. ‘You don’t have to let that define you, buddy, that box isn’t you. It’s just part of your story.’”

And that was really powerful. It just hit me, and it reminds me that there’s boxes that we put ourselves in, or there’s boxes that other people put us in, and we can end up with a label. We can label ourselves, or other people can label us, but that box is not who we are, and the whole story is about how to come out of that box, how to become who we are as individuals and lean into the woman that God created us to be and not label ourselves, or not take on labels from other people. So it’s, that was the beginning of a very powerful story full of favorite quotes, and I couldn’t pick just one.

Lori Margo
I think one of my very favorite lines in the book is toward the beginning, and it says, “And then the young dog learned hard things don’t change who we are, but they can make us forget for a little while.” And I just relate to that so much. I’ve been walking through a really hard season and I’ve lost myself a little bit in this season, and so I just appreciated that line, because it is a fight to get back to who we are in Christ, who we are in our relationships. Yeah. Hard things don’t change who we are, but they can make us forget for a little while. So I appreciated that. I felt very understood by that line.

Cheri Gregory
Ok Dani, you’ve been muzzled long enough. What’s it like for you to, first of all, hear other people reading the words you wrote aloud to you, and just any other responses or reactions you have before we move on.

Danielle Grosse
I just have to tell you that I actually had to wipe away a tear as I was listening to people who I respect and love and they’re picking out parts of my book and calling it powerful. to hear my words read back to me, it was just an amazing experience.

Rhonda Abellera
I’m really interested to know what initially inspired you to write this particular story.

Danielle Grosse
My daughter-in-law came to me and said, “I think I’d like to collaborate on a book with you.” And I knew Jenna’s experienced, and that she had already illustrated a few books for children, and I knew her background with graduating from our local University with a degree. And I said, “Okay.” I said, “What do you have in mind?” And she said, “Well, the story is up to you.” And I went, “No, no, no, thank you.” But I felt like I needed to give her the space and the respect, if this was on her heart, there was a reason. And so I went to, the next two days, and I just kept praying. And I was like, “God, I don’t know how I can wiggle out of this.” And finally, the answer was, “You don’t need to get out of it, here’s the story.” And I went, “Oh, okay, it’s a fable.”

And when you start thinking – after you’ve been a non fiction writer, and you’re thinking about a dog that talks, you go, “People are going to think I am crazy. How can I put this story on paper?” (Laughs) And so I sat down and I just wrote it out. And it was rough and it was ugly, and I went to a couple of people and said, “What do you think of this?” And they went, “Um, well…” And a friend of mine had some great advice. She said, “You know what? It’s not your finished product. It’s the beginning. It’s the seed. It’s where you need to go.” And I went, “Okay, I can rewrite this.” And I just started from the top and tried – there were a couple of points that I really wanted to put in; when we went to Texas, always where we stayed at the ranch, there was a restaurant called The Chicken Coop, and I think that is the most hilarious name for a restaurant that serves fried chicken in Texas. And so I really wanted to put The Chicken Coop in this story, but it just didn’t work. So I had to go back through and talk about Mac dog not wanting to pen the chickens up the way he had been penned up. So the initial story came out, and then there was the adjusting.

Rhonda Abellera
I was really surprised that the dog was talking. Was that initially going to be in the story, or did that just come about?

Danielle Grosse
It was, it was always going to be part of the story. And some of the questions, like different people asked me, were “Are you going to let the dog talk to anybody else?” And what was interesting was, when Jenna came up with the illustrations for the book, she said, “I only want to focus on the dog. I want those to be what people engage with.” And so as you go through the book, if you notice, you never see the boy’s face directly, or any of the human beings’ faces directly, because it’s really Mac dog’s story. And so I wanted to continue this feeling of this is Mac dog and his boy. This is how he is getting guided through his healing. And there are other factors in there, but these are the two that have the conversation.

Pam Watts
Dani, at what point did you realize that we as the reader are going to identify ourselves as Mac dog? And second piece of that is – this is what I’m picking up is, is that wonderful book that Max Lucado writes about Punchinello, the puppet, the Marionette, where the the main character is us, you know, in our frailty and brokenness, and the puppet maker is God. And so I got that same parable in the book. And so like, yeah, I knew right away I was Mac dog. Did you know that? And what point did you see that?

Danielle Grosse
I really felt like you could identify either depending on where you are in your healing journey, because I also felt like there was this thread of the story where the boy didn’t feel like he could bring out his box, because he was the helper, he was the healer, and so he kept that hidden from the boy. And so I think sometimes, depending on where we are in our journey, we’ll identify with Mac dog, and then sometimes I think we’ll identify with the boy. And then Mac dog, as he was healing, then he could step outside of his pain, and he could see, “Hey, the boy needs me.” And sometimes I say the rescue goes both ways.

Pam Watts
I appreciate you expanding on that. I love that.

Leslie Newman
So Dani, one of the things that I love about your story is that this theme of boxes is carried throughout the whole story. And in the middle of the story we learn that Mac dog can see the boxes. We can see boxes of fear, boxes of things that people are trapped in even though those boxes remain invisible to the people. Mac dog sees them. And then we also learn the boy can see them too. And you have this beautiful quote from the story that says, “Love them. Sometimes, in the process, you’ll start to see their boxes fade.” And I thought that was so powerful, because to think about the way that I love someone, or the way that Jesus loves others through us, and to think about how that can help labels and boxes that people have been trapped in fade away. That was just so powerful, and it’s an image that I will continue to carry with me, for myself and for others, because we don’t want those boxes to keep us trapped. And your story is a story that helps release us from the labels and the boxes that we can become trapped in. And I just so appreciate that you.

Cheri Gregory
Here are three reflection questions for you to pray-cess and even journal about:
What’s a “box” you’ve felt stuck in — and how might it be part of your story, but not your identity?

What’s something you long to receive that you often give to others?

Psalm 147:3 (NIV) says, ““He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

What does it mean to you that God heals your broken HSP heart – not all at once, but over time, with tender loving-kindness?

You’ll find the link to a one-sheet printable of these questions in the show notes; and, as always, I’d love to hear any ‘Aha!’ moments you have as you reflect and pray-cess further.

You’ll find the link to order a copy – or a dozen copies! – of Danielle Grosse’s beautiful book at CheriGregory.com/episode293, and you’ll also find the link in the show notes.

And in our next episode, Dani shares the story behind the story – including how collaboration and chronic pain shaped every word and illustration of The Boy, the Boxer, and the Yellow Rose: Because You’re Never Truly Lost, You’re Healing.
[Outro music]
Thank you for listening to Grit‘n’Grace – The Podcast for Highly Sensitive Christian Women!

I hope this episode leaves you feeling encouraged, equipped to thrive, and hopeful that healing isn’t just possible – it’s already begun.

Be sure to follow in your favorite podcast app and share this episode with a friend.

Now, if you’re brand new to the whole HSP concept, come take the “Am I a Highly Sensitive Person?” quiz. You’ll find that link in the show notes.
And remember: God created you sensitive; in Christ, you are always strong.