Tag: community
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Learning To Trust Joy
Can I tell you something that surprised me about healing? Joy can be terrifying. That sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud. For years, I thought happiness was what I was trying to get to. Peace. Safety. Connection. A family that felt whole. A life I actually wanted to participate in. So you would…
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When Survival Is No Longer The Goal
Can I tell you something I wasn’t prepared for? Survival is strangely simple. Not easy. Never easy. But simple. When you’re surviving, the assignment is clear: Get through today. Don’t drink. Tell the truth. Go to the meeting. Make the next right choice. Repair what you can. Get up tomorrow and do it again. There…
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Becoming Her
A Prayer for the Woman Who Is Still Becoming I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to become her. You probably know the woman I’m talking about. She’s healthier than I am. More confident. More patient. More disciplined. She doesn’t overthink. She isn’t afraid of disappointing people. She always knows what to say. She…
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The Women Who Carried Me
I need to tell you the truth about my recovery. I didn’t do this alone. There is a temptation, when we tell stories years later, to clean them up. We remember the decisions we made. The boundaries we learned. The courage we found. The work we did. And slowly, without meaning to, the story starts…
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Ordinary Life Is a Miracle
Can I tell you something I’ve been noticing lately? My life is remarkably ordinary. There are dishes in the sink. Laundry that somehow multiplies faster than I can wash it. Kids who need rides. Work schedules. Grocery lists. Bills. Dinner that needs to be figured out again even though I swear we just ate yesterday.…
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The Courage to Be Seen
Can I tell you something I’m still learning? Being loved and being known are not the same thing. For a long time, I desperately wanted to be loved. I wanted people to approve of me. To think I was a good person. A good wife. A good mom. A good friend. Someone who had it…
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What If Nothing Needs Fixing Today?
Can I tell you something I’ve been learning? I am really good at finding things to work on. Give me five quiet minutes and I can probably identify something about myself that could use improvement. A conversation I could have handled better. A habit I should change. A relationship I need to examine. A goal…
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The Loneliness of Becoming Different
Can I tell you something I’ve been learning? Sometimes healing is lonelier than I expected it would be. No one really prepares you for that. We talk about the courage it takes to ask for help. The hard work of rebuilding trust. Learning healthy boundaries. Finding freedom from addiction. But we don’t talk much about…
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Learning to Like Myself
Can I tell you something I’ve been learning? For most of my life, I thought my job was to become someone I could finally be proud of. If I could just lose the weight. Stop making mistakes. Get healthier. Become a better wife. A better mom. A better Christian. A better friend. Then maybe… Maybe…
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The Parts of Me I Thought I’d Outgrow
For a while, I thought healing meant becoming a completely different person. I imagined there would come a day when fear stopped knocking. When shame finally packed its bags and left. When people-pleasing disappeared. When insecurity no longer whispered in my ear. When telling the truth became effortless. When vulnerability no longer made my stomach…
