It's Time.

If you don't tell your story, no one else will.

It’s 2026 and once again, I’m determined to write my “Big Girl Book” I’ve started and stopped so many times- feeling overwhelmed at the task and underwhelmed at my writing abilities- especially since they’ve been rather dormant. But life goes on, as it does, with each chapter of my life there has been a chapter written only in my mind- to ruminate there. I long to bring “chaos to order” through writing, but why is it so hard to sit and “do the thing?”

So, I begin again- in the same way. I re-read my old writings. And I cringe a little.

The stories that have shaped me are still true, but the way I described them then is different from how I see them now. Far removed from the original wounding incident, I wonder if it’s even relevant to discuss. But maybe this is just the normal self-doubt that plagues a writer- How presumptuous of me to think that anyone would care! Or maybe it’s just that the “old” story needs a fresh version with these older eyes. Maybe both.

It would be easy to compare my wound(s) with the much deeper darker wound(s) of someone else and dismiss my own.

I love to listen to Katherine Wolf’s podcast, and I’ve read her incredible books on her suffering with a stroke in her twenties as well as her recent Treasures in the Dark book which so eloquently describes the JOY that may be found after trauma. Her words resonate so deeply within me, but then I find myself stopping to think, “How can you even compare your suffering to Katherine. She had a stroke for God’s sake! You lost your singing voice- boo hoo! You don’t have the right to complain about your pain!” But in those moments, I have to remind myself to be kind and compassionate.

It’s not fair or helpful to compare our sufferings. Trauma is trauma and pain is pain. I think Katherine would agree with me.

The bottom line is God gave me MY story and gave Katherine HERS. Where she does better than me (for now) is how honestly and vulnerably she SHARES her story with the world. She has found the secret to living with grief- sharing sadness- listening to other’s stories and being a JOY rebel in the face of a broken world. There is hard, but there is also so much good.

It’s time I tell my stories- whether they resonate with you or not- because my story is not really mine at all. It’s the story God chose to tell through ME.

We’re all wounded healers if we choose to share.

Love and Light,

Bonnie