In my life, I have experienced grief in many ways. I have lost friendships, failed at lifelong dreams, lost myself more times than I would like to admit, mourned my childhood, and watched my father’s casket as it was lowered into the ground.

Forgiving yourself is one thing that never comes to an end. We’re only human…which means we’re going to make mistakes along the way. We may cause ourselves to miss out on opportunities that would better our lives or career, unintentionally hurt people we care about, trust the wrong people, and unintentionally harms ourselves.

Change is a word, a verb, that defines generations. We’ve called it evolution, awakening, rebuilding, and many other words. It's one of those things that feel inevitable because it is. Change happens whether you are conscious or not. It's not a place or space that happens and waits for you.

I’ve written about shame before, but I don’t think I noticed or understood how much of a hold it can have on a life. To operate from shame is to operate from a place of fear. To operate in a way that seeks validation for the person you think you need to be or prove yourself in one way or another.

My first blog post was about losing a friend and the thoughts that came with it. Questioning whether I did something wrong or they just weren’t a good friend anymore. Whether it could be fixed or it was lost forever.

I write a lot about being by yourself, being with your mind, and giving yourself the simple pleasure of hearing yourself think. But I never thought it would be something that was forced on people.

The human experience is a funny thing. We walk around and make several connections with people.

We’re in the month of love and it’s Valentine’s Day. There seems to be an excessive amount of relationship talk being thrown around.

For the better half of 2018…my life seemed to be heading in the “right” direction. I wasn’t fussing or worried about a lot of things because I was doing what I could and everything seemed alright.