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Breaking Where No One Looks

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Imagine cracking on the inside and it never been noticed. You cry during emotional moments as expected But the tears have nothing to do with what’s happening. They belong to something older, something waiting. Pain breaks like a levee So what’s really hurting slips past unseen. Everyone expects so much from you, yet rarely considers you. They tell you what they think you want to hear, But you can feel when words are hollow. It hurts to listen while knowing These are lies, manipulation, future faking, love bombing dressed as care. Partners do it. Friends do it. They all do. When someone wants something, They perform. And you know the game. Knowing is the wound. Because in seeing them clearly, It hurts more You wanted to believe They were better people. Every tear carries a story past, present, future sliding down supple cheeks, soaking into fabric, leaving stains of memory until they dry. And then there’s the smile. You hide behind walls, afraid your true expression might escape But her...
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When Empathy Arrives Late

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  Back in February, I came across a video of Sherri Shepherd crying while defending Tyra Banks. The video surfaced amid renewed backlash over America’s Next Top Model and the way contestants were treated on the show. Watching the documentary myself, I was floored. Not because the criticism felt exaggerated, but because it confirmed what many of us sensed even back then and didn’t yet have language for. As a teenager, I loved America’s Next Top Model . I wanted to be on it. That dream was eventually crushed, deliberately and cruelly, by a family that never supported it. At the time, it felt devastating. Looking back now, I see it differently. I wasn’t protected from disappointment; I was protected from an industry I wasn’t ready for. So when I saw Sherri’s emotional defense of Tyra, my first thought wasn’t judgment; it was context. She was responding from the inside. She is a host. She knows the pressure. She understands how chaotic and unforgiving those environments can be. Her ow...
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Cracking the Code

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Last month, during an afternoon nap, I began to dream. At first, I didn’t realize I was dreaming, because like so many of my dreams, it felt real. Not symbolic in the way we often dismiss dreams, but vivid, immersive, and detailed. I was moving through what felt like stages of my life, almost as if I were navigating levels in a game. Each stage carried an element of danger. In order to escape, I had to pay attention. I had to listen closely to the clues being given. I had to notice what I might otherwise overlook. Only then could I crack the code and be transported to the next level. The settings were familiar: my childhood hometown, vacations I’ve taken, stores I’ve visited, places that once held meaning. Each location felt intentional, as if my subconscious were drawing on my own history to teach me something I hadn’t yet integrated. And for a while, I was successful. I passed level after level. But before I woke up, there was one stage I couldn’t get through. I kept looping. The sa...
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When Signs Become Cycles

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There is a dangerous lie many women are taught, that leaving is something you only do when things become unbearable. When the damage is undeniable. When the exit is urgent. But the truth is, by the time you need to escape, you’ve already ignored what your spirit recognized long before. Signs don’t appear to scare us. They appear to inform us. When we ignore them, they become patterns. When we normalize patterns, they become cycles. And cycles, left unchallenged, become our lives. Many women don’t leave when the signs first appear. Not because they don’t see them, but because they’ve been conditioned to doubt themselves. To minimize what feels wrong. To explain away what hurts. To hope someone will become who they promised to be instead of who they consistently show themselves to be. We stay because we’re afraid of being alone. We stay because we’re afraid we won’t find better. We stay because somewhere deep inside, we’ve been taught that love requires endurance, suffering, and self-a...
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