29/01/2026
When one photo holds the beginning of a story so deep, so life-changing, so emotionalโฆ
This one is it.
The evening of 8th March 2017 โ I took this photo to send to my mum to tell her Iโd be super late home from the hairdressers. My hair colour had gone fluorescent yellow/orange (the photo really doesnโt show the full disaster ๐).
My mum was at home looking after my six-week-old twins and my four-year-old son, as my then husband was away working.
I was truly upset about my hair that eveningโฆ
But within 24 hours, my life would come crashing down around me.
An ache in my heart so big I would forget how to breathe with ease for a long time to come.
The catalyst for my awakening was now just inches away.
On Friday 9th March 2017, my beloved father passed away suddenly and unexpectedly while he was away working.
No drama.
No rush of emergency care.
No noise at all.
Just a phone callโฆ and then sudden, all-consuming emptiness.
Awakenings are often brought on by major life events and trauma like this โ though I had no awareness of that at the time. No understanding. No realisation of the path that would unfold from this one moment.
Grief is love with nowhere physical to go.
We are asked to navigate emotions we have never felt before. There is no โendโ to grief โ we are simply squeezed into a space where we must grow beyond who we were, so we can become strong enough to hold it.
That kind of healing is deep, intimate, lonely, painful, exhaustingโฆ and all-consuming.
But what I have discovered is this:
As we grow to hold grief, we also expand our ability to love.
Grief cannot exist without love, and love cannot exist without grief โ they are intricately connected ๐ค
And so, even from something so painful, beauty can exist โจ
I look back at this photo now and send that version of me the expansion of love I can hold today.
I want to tell her she has remarkable strength, integrity, determination and beauty within her.
That she will conquer what she sets her mind to.
That while the journey wonโt be easy, she will one day be so proud of the woman she becomes โ for the love she can hold, the wisdom she can share, the life she rebuilds and the purpose she carries ๐คโจ
A simple photo to someโฆ
But a thousand feelings, stories, lessons and journeys to me ๐๐ป
And to anyone sitting in grief, loss, trauma, heartache or sadness โ
You can and will move through this.
One moment. One breath. One feeling at a time ๐คโจ
