“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” ~Kahlil Gibran There are two versions of me. There’s the one I am now—the grounded, present woman who holds space for others, who guides people toward healing, who walks barefoot through the grass and whispers affirmations while sipping her coffee. And then there’s…
“Ghosting is cruel because it denies a person the chance to process, to ask questions, or to get closure. It’s emotional abandonment, masquerading as protection.” ~Dr. Jennice Vilhauer I never set out to ghost anyone. In fact, I used to hate ghosting with the burning fury of a thousand unread dating app notifications. I told myself I’d never be…
“Happiness turned to me and said, ‘It is time. It is time to forgive yourself for all of the things you did not become… Above all else, it is time to believe, with reckless abandon, that you are worthy of me, for I have been waiting for years.” ~Bianca Sparacino I didn’t know who I was. That realization hit…
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~ Rumi I never imagined I’d be here at forty-nine—divorced, disoriented, and drowning in an identity crisis. I had met him just before my sixteenth birthday. He was all I knew. We built an entire life together—nearly three decades of marriage, raising children, shared memories, traditions, routines. And then,…
“Mindfulness is a pause—the space between stimulus and response: that’s where choice lies.” ~Tara Brach We’ve all been there. A sharp reply. A snide remark. A moment when we said something that didn’t come from our heart but from somewhere else entirely—a need to be right, to sound smart, to prove a point, to stay in control, or simply…
“When the soul wishes to experience something, she throws an image of the experience out before her and enters into her own image.” ~Meister Eckhart For most of my life, something in me felt off—misaligned, too much, not enough. I moved through the world trying to fix a thing I couldn’t name. Then, a beautiful chapter emerged where I…
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.” ~Alan Watts As I enter the later stage of life, I find myself asking questions that are less about accomplishment and…
“When we show up for our kids in moments when no one showed up for us, we’re not just healing them. We’re healing ourselves.” ~Dr. Becky Kenedy I wasn’t taught to pause and breathe when I was overwhelmed. I was taught to push through. To be a “good girl.” To smile when something inside me was begging to be…
“In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.” ~Deepak Chopra There’s a strange ache that comes with becoming healthy. Not the physical kind. The relational kind. The kind that surfaces when we’re no longer quite so wired to betray ourselves for belonging. When we stop curating ourselves to…
TRIGGER WARNING: This post references rape and suicide attempts, which might be distressing for some readers. “Our lives only improve when we are willing to take chances, and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.” ~Walter Anderson This was my third psychiatric hospitalization after my suicide attempts. On this visit, something…
