I Walked Through Darkness — And I Rose

There was a time in my life when I did not know if I would survive.

There were years when grief lived in my bones.

Years when fear stole my sleep.

Years when exhaustion wrapped around my spirit like a second skin.

Years when I questioned the point of living.

Years when I drank to numb the ache of carrying too much pain.

Years when I lay awake terrified I might overdose my child on insulin and he wouldn’t wake up.

Years when I buried my father.

Years when my marriage fractured under the weight of unspoken sorrow.

Years when I lost myself trying to keep everyone else alive.

There was a version of me who became a skeleton just to survive.

A version of me who left her heart somewhere between grief and fear.

A version of me who learned how to disappear without dying.

And still…

I am here.

I am the woman who lived.

I am the mother who stayed.

I am the soul who did not give up.

I am the heart that came back.

There were nights I begged God for answers.

Days I was mad at the world.

Moments when life felt cruel and unbearable.

I broke in ways no one could see.

I carried guilt I never deserved.

I survived storms that nearly took me under.

My husband hasn’t loved me the same since those years.

And I don’t blame him.

I wasn’t the same either.

But what I want you to know —

what I need the world to know —

is this:

Darkness does not get the final word.

Those years did not destroy me.

They forged me.

They carved depth into my spirit.

They taught my soul how strong it truly is.

I honor the woman I was.

I forgive the woman I was.

I love the woman I was.

She carried me home.

And if you are reading this from your own place of ruin —

If you are standing in the ashes of a life you barely recognize —

If you are exhausted from holding everything together with trembling hands —

I want you to know:

You are not broken.

You are becoming.

You are not weak.

You are brave beyond measure.

You are not lost.

You are finding your way back to yourself.

If I could rise from the darkness I walked through,

so can you.

Your story is not over.

Your light is not gone.

Your heart is still here.

And one day, you will look back at the woman you are now and say:

She survived.

She stayed.

She rose.