Radiant Redemption

There’s a strange ache that settles in your bones during recovery. It’s not the ache of detox or withdrawals—it’s the ache of transformation. Of standing in the space between who you used to be and who you’re becoming, unsure of what to do with your hands, your voice, or your heart.

This is the in-between.

It’s the moment you walk into a room that used to feel like home and suddenly feel like a stranger. The inside jokes don’t land the same. The old comforts feel itchy and off. The music’s still playing, but you’re not dancing anymore. And even if nobody says it out loud, you can feel it: you don’t quite belong here anymore.

But here’s the kicker—you don’t quite belong anywhere yet.

That in-between space is disorienting. It’s lonely. It’s tempting to go backward just to feel familiar again. But sis, let me tell you: this discomfort is sacred. This tension is evidence of growth. The dissonance you feel isn’t because you’re broken—it’s because you’re healing.

Before recovery, I was always shape-shifting—trying to be what people wanted, needed, expected. I didn’t know what I liked. I didn’t know what made me feel alive. I only knew what numbed me out. So when I got sober, there was this terrifying realization: I don’t really know myself.

And that’s where intentional living became the game-changer.

Recovery gives us the chance to make new choices, but first we have to figure out what those choices are. What do I actually enjoy when I’m not trying to impress anyone? What lights me up when I’m not just surviving the day? What feels like peace—not performance?

It’s going to take time to answer those questions, and that’s okay. You’re not behind. You’re just rebuilding.

This in-between season is your chrysalis—it’s uncomfortable, messy, and invisible to most people. But it’s where your wings are forming.

So if you’re feeling like you don’t fit anymore, maybe that’s because you’re not supposed to. Maybe those people, places, and patterns were never really for you. Maybe recovery is revealing the truth—not just about who you were, but about who you’re finally free to become.

And you’re not alone. There’s a whole community of women rising from the same wreckage, learning to breathe again, learning to belong to themselves.

Let yourself be a work in progress. Let yourself outgrow what no longer fits. Let yourself become someone your past self would barely recognize—not because she wasn’t worthy, but because you’re finally living in the fullness of who you were always meant to be.

Write a letter to your “in-between” self. The you who doesn’t quite know where she fits, who feels uncomfortable in her old skin but isn’t sure what the new one looks like yet. Tell her she’s not lost—she’s just becoming.

And if this post spoke to something in you, share it with a sister who might be standing in her own in-between right now. Let’s remind each other that this space may be awkward, but it’s holy ground.