Beth-Love Will Forever Be a Gift

I sometimes think that my story with Shalom began long before I knew what to call it. Lawrence and Joy are my aunt and uncle, and I was a teenager when I first touched that world, going to some teen retreats at the London Schoolhouse. Back then, I didn’t fully understand it. It was just… […]

Tasia-Finding Myself in the Mess

I first found Shalom in 2019, almost by accident. I was in therapy, and I wanted something new. Something different. Maybe even a little bit of an adventure. Therapy had taken me far, but there was something I couldn’t quite reach. My therapist had a connection to Shalom, and I remember Googling, reading just enough […]

A Simple Day of Hope

Hope-Turning Five   I’m four today.But I’m turning five on my birthday.March 30th. I share my birthday with three people.Nay Nay…and my great grandpa…and someone else too. I like that. I’m excited about my birthday. We’re going to have a pool party.And I’m really excited about the pool. My mom got a lot of pool […]

A Day that Holds it All

Jack-83 and Beyond I was born on March 30. A day that has carried more than one meaning in my life. On my 38th birthday, in 1967, my father died just after I left the hospital.A day meant for celebration became something else. A crossing. I have thought about death often since then.Not with fear, […]

Back to Myself

Stephanie — 38 “Some things just have to play out before you can see them.” I didn’t think I had a story. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say… I didn’t think I had a story that was untold. Because I talk. A lot. I process out loud. I’ve told pieces of my life in […]

The Turning Point

John-Age 75 “Every turning point in my life came down to the same choice: security or growth. Each time I chose growth, even when it was frightening, my life opened in ways I never could have imagined.” When I was asked to share my story for this project, something in me immediately said yes. But […]

The Tide of Unfinished Conversations

Finding Resolution Without the Conversation Some of the most important conversations in my life are the ones I never got to have. Not because I didn’t want them.But because the person is gone.Or unwilling.Or because when the moment came, the words simply wouldn’t come out. For a long time I believed resolution required two people […]

The Illusion of Intimacy

On Secrecy, Speech, and the Fire of Truth I grew up in a large family, one of nine children, five sisters, a house full of noise, bodies, opinions, and shared air. From the outside, that configuration reads as closeness. Abundance implies belonging. A large family carries a kind of cultural shorthand: you must be close. […]

The Magic of Santa

The Santa That Never Left: On Believing, Not-Believing, and Believing Again On Christmas, community, and the magic that outlives belief For Faith Mark, who taught us how to make magic. Born Into Community Growing up in a family of nine children was loud, hectic, chaotic—and sometimes breathtakingly magical. Being the eighth of nine meant I […]

Breaking the Spell of Hope

✨ HOPE-FREE: The Freedom I’m Still Learning to Trust I need to begin with this truth:I am not fully hope-free.Not yet.Maybe not ever, not entirely. Hope runs through my family of origin like a living vein.It’s woven into our language,interlaced through the way we cared for one another,a soft phrase used like a blessing: “I […]