Reclaiming Me

I'm looking back at my Facebook memories for today. So many posts about what a crappy year I had survived and how I hoped the next one would be better. I had no idea just how much worse it could get.

But as I stand at the threshold of 2026, I have no urge to reinvent myself. There is no checklist. No declaration. No pressure to become someone better.

The pain and darkness of 2025 led me back to a version of myself that was hiding. The girl who learned early to shrink, to wait, to protect herself. It was like someone had pushed the pause button and set her off to the side, while the lost and broken version took her place to survive.

The great irony is, that in order to survive this year, I had to find her and find the courage to reclaim that life and that soul that should have always been here.

I had to reclaim her.

Only then could I move forward into my God-given purpose in this life.

I had to go home to myself in order to heal. I had to heal to become the lighthouse God intends for me to be.

What I know today is that I am more myself.

More whole.

More understanding.

More empathetic.

More prepared.

This is the woman I came here to be.

This is where I stop surviving.

This is where I start to live.