Sometimes, out of nowhere, a memory will rise. A version of you before all the heaviness. Before the survival mode. Before the walls you didn\u2019t even know you were building. Maybe she laughed easier. Maybe she believed people quicker. Maybe she danced without needing a reason. Maybe she didn\u2019t carry so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And maybe now\u2026 you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe now you\u2019re the one who holds everything together. The one who thinks five steps ahead. The one who gets it done because no one else will. The strong one. The one who doesn\u2019t fall apart, even when she\u2019s aching to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And while that strength is real and fierce and hard-won, sometimes there\u2019s a quiet grief underneath it all\u2014a missing of the softness. Of the lightness. Of the girl you once were before the world demanded so much from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let that missing be okay.
Let it be tender.
Let it remind you that she\u2019s not gone\u2014just buried under years of coping and proving and surviving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She\u2019s still in there. She didn\u2019t disappear.
She\u2019s waiting. For safety. For rest. For you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You don\u2019t have to go back to her completely. You\u2019ve grown. You\u2019ve evolved. But you can let her hold your hand again. You can give her space to breathe. You can honour who she was without dishonouring the woman you had to become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Missing her is not weakness.
It\u2019s memory.
It\u2019s love.
And maybe, just maybe\u2014it\u2019s the beginning of coming home to yourself again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometimes, out of nowhere, a memory will rise. A version of you before all the heaviness. Before the survival mode. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,6,2,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home-in-my-body","category-coming-back-to-myself","category-life-and-livelihood","category-love-redefined","category-notes-from-life","category-raising-humans","category-the-quiet-bloom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}