Glow of Light
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The Bloodbath of Healing
People don’t understand that healing isn’t a glow-up. It’s a bloodbath. It’s standing in the wreckage of everything you tolerated and realizing the monster wasn’t just him – it was the version of you that stayed. The one who kept… Continue reading
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The Ones Who Stayed When No One Else Did
A haunting reflection on the kind of darkness that doesn’t visit – it becomes you. This piece explores the truth that sometimes our demons aren’t intruders at all, but the guardians that kept us alive when no one else did. Continue reading
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The Strength in Breaking
He thought breaking me in half would make me easier to control. What he never understood was that each broken piece carried its own strength, and when I gathered them back together, I became something whole that he could never… Continue reading
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The Law Books Became My Scripture
The law books became my scripture. The courtroom became my battlefield. Not because I wanted revenge, but because survival demanded I learn how to fight with a different kind of weapon. For me, it was never about destroying someone else… Continue reading
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If You Only Knew the Half of It
When people talk about survival after marriage, they often mean the heartbreak, the loneliness, the empty house. My story was different. Survival for me meant outlasting cruelty that didn’t end when the vows did. It meant facing not only a… Continue reading
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Progress Is Not a Straight Line
I still lock every door twice, even when I know it is safe. I still catch myself replaying conversations in my head, analyzing every word and wondering if I said the wrong thing. Some mornings I wake up with my… Continue reading
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The Grief of Teaching Yourself Love
There’s a grief no one prepares you for – the grief of realizing you were never given the kind of love that makes you feel safe, and that you have to teach it to yourself from scratch. It isn’t loud,… Continue reading
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When Silence Masquerades as Love
I’m tired of calling restraint love. For too long, I’ve tried to convince myself that biting my tongue, locking my hands behind my back, and choking down the feelings that rise in my chest is a noble act. That holding… Continue reading
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The Space Between Us
You looked at me longer than most people do. It wasn’t the quick glance people give before moving on, the kind that skims the surface and never bothers to linger. It was steady, almost deliberate, like you were letting yourself… Continue reading
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Holding It All Together Nearly Broke Me
I didn’t notice the burnout at first. I just thought I was tired. Of course I was tired. But then the tired didn’t go away. It didn’t matter how much I slept – or didn’t. I’d wake up with heaviness… Continue reading
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I Built the Life. Then My Body Broke Down.
For years, I didn’t stop. Work all day, come home and mother, then study deep into the night. Some nights I was up until two, sometimes three in the morning, chasing a degree that felt like survival, not ambition. People… Continue reading
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For Me. For Him. For Us.
I used to think healing meant finding the right words to make people understand. To explain why I stayed so long. Why I kept hoping. Why I kept trying to make it work when it was already broken. I wanted… Continue reading
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The Distance I Don’t Know How to Cross
Sometimes I catch myself staring at your hands, your mouth, the way you breathe when you’re thinking. It’s stupid, how much I notice. I memorize you without permission, like I’m preparing for a goodbye I never agreed to. I tell… Continue reading
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Another Life, Maybe
There’s a kind of connection that doesn’t need to be spoken to be understood. Yours lives in the way I feel when you’re near me. I don’t know how to explain it clearly, but I notice things I don’t notice… Continue reading
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Slow Isn’t Boring When It Feels Like Safety
I don’t know how to explain it. The way I feel pulled toward you, even when I’m doing everything I can to keep my distance. It’s not about fear of you – it’s what you bring up in me. You… Continue reading
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Where the Shaking Comes From
I used to spiral when it happened. The tight chest. The sudden urge to flee a room that felt perfectly safe a second ago. I’d call myself dramatic. Weak. I’d ask what was wrong with me, why I couldn’t just… Continue reading
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When Distance Was the Only Way I Knew to Stay Safe
You don’t know how often I rehearsed distance in my mind. I told myself what to say if I saw you. I practiced not looking too long, not smiling too much, not letting my voice give anything away. I made… Continue reading
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When Love Meant Disappearing: Grieving the Self I Had to Bury to Be “Enough”
There’s a grief that doesn’t announce itself loudly. It comes in quiet waves, often when you’re doing something ordinary – folding laundry, locking the front door, hearing someone say “I’m proud of you” in a way that sounds like they… Continue reading
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The Hour That Saved Me: Finding Safety Before the World Woke Up
Some mornings I’d quietly slip out of bed while it was still dark. I didn’t turn on the lights. I didn’t make a sound. I just needed that one hour where I wasn’t being watched, evaluated, or interrupted. An hour… Continue reading
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The Love I Never Said Out Loud
I used to think love had to be loud to count. That it had to come with declarations and certainty and all the things movies make look easy. But what I felt for him never moved like that. It was… Continue reading
Light Calls To Light 