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Welcome to My World. IT ISN'T PERFECT, BUT ITS REAL
Not the polished version- the real one. Even my polished version isn't so polished.
The one made of moments that did not ask for permission before they changed everything.
This space was created for lived experiences. The kind that crack you open.... and slowly, over time, teaches you how to stand inside yourself again.
Here you will find stores that are not always easy to tell-
stores of real life circumstances, my sister Suzi's fight through aneurysms and survival, my grandsons fragile beginning with a massive cyst in his tiny little head, the challenges of our every changing worlds, my own beginning..the one that was never meant to be, and yet here I am
Alive,
Still becoming,
Still choosing to celebrate all that makes up me.
This is a place where fragments of life and not broken pieces. They are forming pieces.
Pieces that shape who we become as women, mothers, daughters, sisters and friends.
I write about the wounds that linger- the ones that keep you stirred beneath the surface until something in you says enough....I want something different, growth, change. Sometimes we aren't even sure what it is that we want we just know enough in enough and something has to shift.
I write about finding your voice when it feels like you don't have one because it is buried so far down from accommodating those around you and fear.
About vulnerability, not as weakness- but as truth.
About loving through the unimaginable.... including walking beside children who have gone to prison, and learning what it means to love when it hard, complicated and often misunderstood. To love with shame attached to your grief.
This website is more than a collection of stories
Its a space to connect, learn and find your way forward.
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A place for reader who want to feel less along
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A place for writers looking for resources, guidance, and creative support
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A place for families navigating incarceration, searching for understanding and community.
You'll find:
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My published nonfiction book, " My heart behind bars"
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My upcoming work, including second deeply personal book
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A Fiction series in progress, exploring the other side of story telling
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Resources for writers- publishing paths, cover designs, groups and retreats
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Support spaces for those with incarcerated loved ones
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And a blog filled with real stores...the kind that stay with you.
If your here it is not by accident.
Maybe your carrying something.
Maybe your searching for words you haven't found yet.
Maybe you just need to sit somewhere that feels real
Your welcome here.
MY Story
I wasn't meant to be here. Well depending on who you talk to and what sort of belief system you hold.
Before I had a voice, before I had a name, a decision was made that my life wouldn't begin. But it did
And somehow ... that has shaped everything.
I grew up inside the quiet ache of not being chosen, a knowing before I even knew. Learning early how to make sense of love that didn't always feel like love.
Life did not unfold gently.
There were fractures- family, identity, belonging. There were moments that forced me to grow before I was ready. Moments that stayed with me long after they passed.
And there were the chapters that changed me in ways I could not have imagined-
Assaulted so bad my own mother did recognize me, becoming a mother, ending a marriage not because you didn't love because addiction forced you to let them go, walking through the heartbreak of having a child go to prison, learning to love through the fear, anger, confusion.. and still choosing love anyways.
I have stood in hospital rooms holding my breath. I have watched people I love fight to stay here. I have learned that strength doesn't always look strong... it often looks like simply not giving up.
For a long time, I carried everything quietly. Until something in me shifted.
I didn't want to just survive my life..I wanted to understand it, to live it.
To give it language. To take all the pieces...messy, painful, beautiful... and turn them into something that could reach someone else.
Think this is where my writing began. Not from perfection....but from my truth.
Now I write so others do not feel alone in things we are often afraid to say out loud. I write to make space for grief, healing and for growth. For the parts of us that are still becoming. And maybe most of all..... I write because I am still here.. And that means something.
Get to know me...
not everything we carry is easy to name. but sometimes, being seen-even in small ways -can change something
If something here spoke to you... you don't have to hold it alone.
Whether you have a question, looking for support, a story, or just a few words you've been carrying, you're welcomed to reach out. I may not have all the answers- but I will meet your words with respect and care.