Category: Reflections
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The Power of One Conversation
“Sometimes the most important thing we can do isn’t provide an answer. It’s ask a better question.” There are moments in our lives that seem ordinary at the time. A conversation. A meeting. A question. A few words spoken in passing. We rarely recognize them as turning points until years later. For me, that moment…
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What I Needed to Prune Wasn’t My Past—It Was the Wiring It Left Behind
This week, I spent several evenings trimming trees around my property. Some branches were dead. Others had grown in directions that were choking out healthy growth. A few looked fine on the outside, but once I cut into them, I realized they had been damaged long ago. As I worked, I couldn’t help but think…
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Healing Doesn’t Mean the Fear Disappears
This morning, I almost commented on a LinkedIn post. My fingers were on the keyboard. I had something meaningful to contribute to the conversation. Then I noticed a familiar name connected to the discussion—a reminder of someone who caused tremendous harm in my life many years ago. I quietly closed the app. No one knew.…
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Twenty Years Later: From Seed to Oak Tree
Tomorrow marks twenty years since I almost died. Twenty years since a June night in 2006 when a near-fatal strangulation changed the course of my life forever. For a long time, I viewed that night as the day everything was taken from me. Now, I see it differently. I think that night was the day…
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The Girl Who Thought a New City Would Save Her
I look at this picture now and I see a woman who was smiling. What I don’t see is the exhaustion she was carrying. What I don’t see is the fear, the confusion, the grief, and the years of survival mode hidden behind that smile. This picture was taken around the time I moved to…
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The Bruises Healed. The Voices Stayed.
As someone with an ACE score of 9, I have experienced nearly every form of abuse a person can endure. Physical abuse. Sexual abuse. Domestic violence. Psychological abuse. Verbal abuse. Emotional abuse. In 2006, I survived a near-fatal strangulation during a domestic violence assault. That night changed the course of my life in ways I…
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When Peace Starts Feeling Safer Than Chaos
A week ago, I started a new part-time job. Nothing glamorous. No lights and sirens. No trauma. No death. No emergencies. No rushing from one crisis to the next. And after my first week there, I can honestly say something I never expected to say: I love it. But as much as I love it,…
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Before & After: The Conversation That Changed My Life
Almost twenty years ago, I sat in an emergency room after being verbally abused, physically beaten, and forever changed by a near-fatal strangulation. The “nice guy” everyone knew was a dangerous drunk behind closed doors. My discharge papers said: “Discontinue this relationship.”“Return if symptoms persist.” Sometimes I wonder what those discharge instructions would say if…
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From Accusation to Freedom: How God Turned an Attack Into My Next Blessing
Yesterday was an emotional rollercoaster.It started with workplace tension that had been brewing for months. Long story short, what began as ten people raising concerns — nine of them even going to leadership in person — finally reached the point where we demanded action. Somewhere in the mess of it all, over the last six…