A Very Special Invitation
Hi!
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve shared a little about BIG Feelings, about me, and about some of the ideas underneath the work I create.
This week, I want to introduce you to something that grew out of all of it.
Brightlight Orchard. 🌳✨
Growing up, I made a lot of choices I later regretted.
Some were impulsive. Some were poorly thought out. Some hurt other people, and some hurt me.
For a long time, I carried guilt and shame about those choices. But as I got older, I started to see that they also taught me something.
They helped me figure out what mattered to me, what I valued, what I wanted to avoid, and what I wanted to do differently next time.
Most importantly, they taught me this:
A choice can have consequences without becoming our identity.
Now I’m the parent of a big-feeling daughter, and I get a front-row seat to all of the choices she makes.
Some are impulsive. Some are amazing. Some leave me wondering exactly what was happening in her brain at the time. 😂
What I hope she learns earlier than I did is that she can make a mistake, reflect on it, repair when needed, learn something, and try again.
That idea shows up constantly in my work as a therapist too.
I find myself reminding clients again and again:
It’s okay to have big feelings. It’s what you do with them that matters.
And when they make choices that don’t align with their goals or values, I remind them that those choices don’t define them or take away their worth.
That was one of the ideas already taking shape as I built BIG Feelings.
The first BIG Feelings resource I created was a feelings wheel. After years of sitting with clients who knew they felt something but struggled to put words to it, I wanted to create a tool that could help them name what they were feeling.
The kids feelings wheel came next, with six characters representing the primary emotions:
🍎 Angry Apple
💜 Fearful Fig
🫐 Blue Blueberry
🍐 Picky Pear
🍋 Lovely Lemon
🍍 Puzzled Pineapple
Around that same time, my daughter read an interactive fairy-tale book where she got to choose what happened next.
We both loved it.
And something clicked.
What if I combined that kind of choose-your-own-path storytelling with emotions?
What if children could step into a story, understand what a character was feeling, make a choice, and see what happened next?
What if they could go back and try something different?
Not because one path was “good” and another was “bad,” but because choices have impact.
That idea became Brightlight Orchard.
Brightlight Orchard is an interactive children’s storybook world where children and the grown-ups beside them follow characters through big feelings and make choices along the way. Different choices lead them down different paths to discover what happens next.
There is no single “right” path or lesson to uncover.
Instead, the stories create space for curiosity, conversation, reflection, and the chance to go back and try something different.
The first book is Angry Apple and the Playground Problem. 🍎
Apple has been waiting for his turn on the tallest slide when Bouncy Banana goes first.
Apple gets angry.
And then the reader decides what happens next.
Different choices lead to different reactions, misunderstandings, conversations, opportunities for repair, and ultimately four possible endings.
Readers can go back, choose differently, and notice how the story changes.
Every feeling belongs. Every choice matters.
This Sunday, August 23, the Kickstarter for Angry Apple and the Playground Problem launches.
I’ll send you the live link on Sunday.
If Brightlight Orchard sounds like something you’d want to share with a child, family, classroom, counseling office, or school, I’d be so grateful if you visit the link.
And if someone came to mind while you were reading this, sharing it with them would help too.
It’s a little surreal to think that something that started with a feelings wheel has grown into an entire storybook world.
I’m excited.
I’m nervous.
And I’m really ready to finally invite people into the Orchard.
I hope you'll come visit soon!
Warmly,
Missy ✨
Dr. Missy Kleinz, PhD, LPC
Creator of BIG Feelings + Brightlight Orchard