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Living Grateful and Traumatized
Living Grateful and Traumatized at the Same Time It’s Sunday, but it feels like every other day since we’ve been here, and that sameness is starting to wear on me in ways I don’t know how to fix. Sundays are supposed to feel quieter, slower, maybe even a little safer, but instead I’m stuck living grateful and traumatized at the same time. Today doesn’t feel restful at all. It just feels heavy. My partner’s mom is off work, which means her boyfriend is also home. That also means the arguing has already started, and none of it is actually about today. It’s about the past. Years and years ago. And…
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Creating While Exhausted
Still Creating While Exhausted: Writing, Waiting, and Holding On Lately, I have been thinking a lot about what it means to still be creating while exhausted. Not just tired, but emotionally wrung out, physically drained, and stretched thin in every direction. Today feels like one of those days where everything is heavy, and yet, somehow, I am still here, still building, still hoping. Back at the beginning of November 2025, I started writing a novel for NaNoWriMo under my pen name, Ravyn Vale. The book is called The Burning Bride, the first planned novel in a four-book series called The Fire Court Saga. I poured myself into it and made…
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My Daughter’s Birthday Far Away
My Daughter’s Birthday Far Away, and the Love That Still Shows Up Today is my daughter Chloe’s 11th birthday, and I honestly do not know how that sentence is real. Eleven. Somehow the tiny baby I once held is now a full-on human with opinions, interests, and a personality that keeps evolving right in front of me, even from far away. Celebrating my daughter’s birthday far away never gets easier, but it has taught me a lot about love, grief, and showing up in different ways. Chloe lives in Georgia with her dad, and I miss her like crazy. That part never stops hurting. But I refuse to let distance…
