Completed Plans: 208! 🎉
I’m so proud of myself. My healing journey has been so rewarding, overwhelming many times but nonetheless rewarding. Thank you God for Your healing, Your grace and Your mercy. Amen. 🙏🏼🫶🏼🎀
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Alana Sharps, Certified High Conflict Divorce and Child Custody Consultant, Best Selling Author and Speaker
Happy Mother’s Day to the realest one on my team. Ten toes down no matter what. You told me I could survive and continue living without my late husband and be successful on my own. Never forgetting the mark he left but becoming my own woman. You told me it was okay to grieve, remember and honor him privately because none of that has to be done for the audience of social media. That my complicated grief and remembrance could be private and sacred.
You told me out of love that last little relationship wasn’t going to work because you can’t love people into their potential, they have to want it for themselves. You told me when someone shows you who they are believe them and don’t try to gaslight myself into believing differently. His loss.
You told me you admired my calling to serve other people but, to not set myself on fire to keep other people warm. You gave me your strength, many times when you had none for yourself.
You taught me the true meaning of “it is what it is”. You taught me the true meaning of “cry, then boss up”. You taught me that this world doesn’t owe me anything, but I owe myself everything.
You made me want to live again.
Happy Mother’s Day. Because with you, you deserve to be celebrated all days. I love you more than anything, even LaRoyce Hawkins. 🫶🏼♥️🎀
When I look back at my life, I am so thankful that God brought me out of many situations that would have only resulted in my destruction had I stayed there. I was too afraid to take action, so God acted on my behalf. God protected me from myself and others. Protection I was too blind to even see I needed.
In the moments of having to leave behind people, possessions, and relationships we hold close and dear to us, may seem like the most challenging thing to do. But in reality, those heartbreaking moments make room for our healing.
When you put your trust in the One who knows best; the present pain will eventually turn into the greatest gain in life. With God giving you back something you never knew you had lost, yourself.
Suzanne DeChillo, photographer, who shot Clinton for the New York Times in Washington on Jan. 31, 1993: “This is Hillary in the famous ‘Cold Shoulder’ dress designed by Donna Karan. During a hectic day before the Clintons hosted their first official dinner at the White House in 1993 – for a brief moment she relaxed and smiled. As first lady, she generated a lot of comment with her dress, her role in health care reform or whether she baked cookies.
As a staff photographer for the New York Times, I was assigned to photograph a food story about Hillary Clinton preparing for the first dinner in the State Dining Room. The writer Marian Burros got a scoop that the new first lady was banning smoking at the White House beginning with removing the ashtrays from the tables in the State Dining Room. Suddenly I was shooting for two different stories, a photographer’s nightmare. We needed a dynamite photo of Hillary and of the marinated shrimp. I spent over 12 hours photographing in the White House. Not only did the Times need several pix of Hillary, but I photographed the White House chef, the pastry chef, the flower arranger, preparations of the smoked marinated shrimp, the Reagan red chinaware and the toast at the banquet for the governors.
The Times‘ front-page smoking ban story ran with a pix of Hillary fussing with the table setting with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln looking down on her. The ‘Cold Shoulder’ picture ran days later in a story with comments on her dress. As First Lady, she generated a lot of comment with that dress, her role in health care reform or whether she baked cookies. In the end, no one complained about the smoking ban. And now, I read that the dress is one of her favorites.”
There is no timestamp on trauma, pain, devastation, and grief. There isn’t a formula that you can insert yourself into to speed up the healing process. You have to sit with those uncomfortable emotions, have those difficult conversations, and sort through those painful feelings. Be patient. Take up space. Let your journey hold your hand while you heal yourself. To heal is to touch with love that which we previously touched with fear. Confront your trauma and don’t run from it. I am better off healed than I ever was broken.
