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Shawna Olds's avatar

The wisdom that pours from your brain to the paper leaves me often speechless. Touching, simply touching.

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Hope's avatar

Love you so so much Shawna. ❤️ Thanks for this encouragement.

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Jessica Wilen's avatar

What a powerful reflection, Hope. Thank you for sharing with all of us ❤️

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Hope's avatar

Thanks so much for reading, Jessica. I respect you a lot so this encouraged me a ton ❤️

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Amanda's avatar

Hope, as I grapple with the same sort of big questions and feelings in your poem and your post—fears that I will mess up so badly that it will destroy not only my life, but also the lives of many I care about—I'm clinging to the same conclusions... that God gives grace and it is sufficient, even when it's not the form I would like. Thank you for sharing this bit of your heart here. It does help grow our faith to see our hearts reflected in others. ❤️

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Hope's avatar

Amanda, yes yes yes! That song lyric "All I know is grace" hits me every single time because sooo much stuff doesn't feel like grace...but what a gift if we're able to truly believe that God is THAT wise and good. Thanks for reading as always, and please please please keep writing; I love your stuff ❤️

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Sarah Miller's avatar

I’m deeply sorry this happened to you, Hope — and also so glad everyone was okay.

I’m wondering, have you ever had any bodywork or somatic processing therapies done to help your *body* release the trauma? I know it sounds woo-woo but there is plenty of evidence that shows that processing and integrating traumatic experiences doesn’t — as in, can’t — happen in the language areas of the brain. I.e., talking about it won’t heal it (while also acknowledging that talking about it does heal some parts of it, just perhaps not all of it). Just a suggestion, if it might be helpful.

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Hope's avatar

Honestly I hadn't looked into that very much before, but I found some videos on YouTube so I'll have to try that! Somatic processing sounds like it would be very helpful and definitely a rabbit hole I should dive down a bit. Thanks for the love, support, and wisdom as always, Sarah ❤️

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Olivia Potts's avatar

Thanks so much for sharing this 🥹 I resonate a lot. It can seem so risky to allow yourself to truly feel joy and hope - I’m still working up the courage, myself 🩷

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Hope's avatar

Thanks for reading. I super dislike emotional risks and will happily settle for pretty much anything else lol, but yes, entrusting God with that stuff is so worth it ❤️

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Katie Golembeski's avatar

Beautiful doesn’t seem like the right word, but your poem was beautiful. I appreciate your words and wisdom so much. As someone who’s been honked at 4 times in the past month for making mistakes while driving my ducklings, your words were super comforting.

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Hope's avatar

Thank you so much for reading, Katie ❤️ I never use church bumper stickers or "Baby on Board" signs because I feel like people will judge my driving but I really am doing the best I can out here! lol. Love ya friend ❤️

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