Healing a Burned Soul

A Letter to Anyone Who Feels “Too Much” This Season The holidays have a way of magnifying everything— not just the beauty, not just the joy— but the pain we’ve learned to hide so well. Or so we thought we were hiding it. This season is supposed to feel warm and magical, filled with love and laughter and belonging. But the truth? Sometimes the lights feel too bright. Sometimes the rooms feel too crowded. Sometimes the expectations feel suffocating. For me, one of the hardest p

Thanksgiving shows up on the calendar every year with its familiar rhythm — food, family, traditions, photos, and a thousand little expectations. When you live far from blood family, like myself, every year brings something different. But this year, I can’t pretend that gratitude feels simple or tidy. Because the truth is… I’m learning that real thanksgiving — the kind the Bible talks about — is messy. It’s uncomfortable. It’s a discipline formed in the trenches, not around a

I was sitting at a Friendsgiving on Wednesday night when I casually said, “I’ve only lived here for three years.”Everyone at the table froze and said, “Wait—what? Only three years??” Their reaction caught me off guard. Not because three years is nothing, but because it has felt so short. Yet somehow, in that short span, I’ve become a part of their world in a way that feels… permanent. Natural. Familiar. And as I sat there, something in me whispered: I’ve never felt this befor