You might have noticed there’s a comma in my logo. When a comma is used in a sentence, it’s meant to indicate a pause before the rest of sentence continues. For me, the comma has always been a beautiful symbol of continuation even after brief interlude, yet historically in my life, pauses have never been welcome. I don’t like to stop, to sit with difficult situations, to put anything on hold. But for the first time in my life, after that day in February, I had to put almost everything on hold. My dreams, my plans, what I thought my life would look like. It was one of the most difficult periods of my life and yet also one of the most beautiful. It turns out, even when life has completely and utterly flipped upside down, it isn’t over. After a short pause, life actually just pivots. After Renley was born, my life pivoted in such an unexpected, grace-filled way. I learned more about who I was, where there was room to grow and heal, what I was passionate about doing and how worthy I am as a woman. This time healed wounds I never knew existed. Life continued after all, just as words flow effortlessly after the much-needed comma.
Speaking of pivots - When I was seventeen, my high school boyfriend dumped me. I was heartbroken and had no idea how to move forward so I did what any normal 17-year-old would do: I wrote a how-to guide for getting over a break up and distributed it to all of my other broken-hearted high school friends. While this self-deprecating tale is laughable, it perfectly encompasses the way I process grief and try my best to turn paralyzing heartbreak into healing. And while a high school heart break doesn’t even come close to a journey through unplanned pregnancy, grief is real and pain is always relative.
Here is my start to creating some semblance of a guide for women facing this challenge or other challenges in their lives. It will grow and build overtime and I’m sure the way I approach difficulty will also evolve but this is my little, humble, heart-filled gift to you. I hope in some way you feel comforted and empowered to know you can and will go on. I hope you know that courage is within you and always has been. I hope that somehow my experiences and learnings comfort you and let you know that you can go through this too. I hope you’ll know that, just like the comma, life continues after a short pause.
Sometimes the pause is exactly what we needed.
And sometimes the pivot leads down a path more beautiful than any one we imagined.
