What happened to you wasn’t your fault. Not the neglect, not the betrayal, not the abandonment, not the pain you were too young or too unsupported to handle. You didn’t choose the people who hurt you. You didn’t choose to grow up feeling unsafe, unloved, or unseen. And yet—here you are, still standing. Still breathing….
Read moreCategory: Notes from Life
A place for the everyday, the unexpected, and the things that don’t fit anywhere else. Honest reflections, small observations, and quiet moments — all the bits of life that whisper their meaning if we pay attention.
Hunger Is Not Shameful
Hunger is not a weakness or a failure of willpower. It’s a message. A whisper from the body that says, “I need something.” Just like thirst or sleep, hunger is a biological signal—not a moral issue. And yet so many of us have been taught to feel guilty when it shows up. We apologize for…
Read moreYou Are Not Too Much
There’s this quiet fear many of us carry—that we’re too much. Too emotional. Too opinionated. Too intense. Too loud. Too complicated. And that fear gets reinforced when people pull away or ask us to shrink, to be smaller, quieter, easier to handle. It can make us question everything about ourselves. But here’s what’s true: you’re…
Read moreI Am Allowed to Choose Myself
You don’t need anyone’s permission to choose yourself. For years, you might’ve been trained to abandon your own needs—maybe to keep the peace, to be liked, to avoid conflict, or because you were told that putting yourself first is selfish. But it’s not. Choosing yourself is how you stay alive inside. It’s how you protect…
Read moreFat Is Not a Flaw
Fat isn’t a mistake or a problem to fix. It’s not a punishment or a failure. It’s simply one of the many ways that bodies exist—naturally, biologically, and beautifully. Some bodies are rounder. Softer. Thicker. That doesn’t make them less worthy or less capable of joy, love, movement, intelligence, or style. It just means they’re…
Read moreChoosing Softness After the Storm
Love after heartbreak doesn’t fall from the sky like some wild miracle. It doesn’t appear because you were finally good enough or healed enough. It comes because you choose it. Because somewhere inside you, even after all the pain, there’s still a soft spot that wants to try again. After heartbreak, it’s easy to grow…
Read moreI Teach My Children that Mistakes Are Part of Learning, Not Signs of Failure.
I used to panic when I messed up—like I had failed not just at the task, but at being good enough. That feeling stuck with me for years. And now, as a parent, I notice how easy it is to pass that same fear onto my kids without meaning to. The pressure to get it…
Read moreA Second Chance at Love Is Not About Forgetting. It’s About Choosing, With Open Eyes.
When you’ve been hurt before, love doesn’t come with the same wide-eyed innocence. It comes with memory. With lessons. With a heart that’s been cracked open, maybe more than once. And that can make it feel complicated—like maybe you’re too aware now, too cautious, too marked by the past to try again. But the truth…
Read moreMy Feelings Are Valid, Even If Others Don’t Understand Them
Let’s start here: feelings are not facts, but they are real. They are signals from your body and mind saying, “Hey, something matters here.” And just because someone else doesn’t get it, or minimizes it, doesn’t mean you’re wrong to feel the way you do. Maybe growing up, you were told to “stop crying” or…
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