Category: the courageous journey
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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…