08/31/2026
Field Note Through The Threshold š±:
-The Women Who Were There-
Last year, my last remaining grandmother passed away.
At her funeral, we honored her with a Nightingale ceremony. As a fellow nurse, it was an incredible honor to release her from her duties.
The ceremony consisted of repeating the words:
āShe was there.ā
Those words have stayed with me.
Because when I think about the women in my family, the mothers, grandmothers, nurses, and women who came before usā¦I realize one of the greatest things they passed down to me was presence.
They were there.
For the hardest moments. Holding hands when someone received devastating news. Sitting beside hospital beds. Caring for people when they couldnāt care for themselves. Showing up when there was nothing they could fix.
And they were there for the beautiful moments, too.
Births. Weddings. Celebrations. Holidays. The ordinary days that become precious simply because we shared them.
But presence came with a cost.
The missed holidays. The birthdays worked through. The exhaustion of always being the one who could be counted on. Being physically present while your mind was somewhere else.
I know that cost because Iāve lived some of it, too.
But I also know the gift.
The strength of someone sitting beside you when life falls apart. Everyone gathering together and silently knowing:
We will get through this.
Maybe thatās part of why presence has become so important to me.
This life weāre building, slowing down, living with less, creating enough financial freedom that our lives donāt have to revolve around earning moreā¦has given me something I knew I needed but couldnāt name.
Space to be present with myself.
To be in my body. To witness my own life. To be here now.
I want to carry that gift forward.
To know when to stay. To know when to rest. To be there for others without giving away all of my own presence.
Maybe honoring the women who came before us means receiving what they gave us, learning from what it cost them, and carrying the gift forward without carrying the burden in the same way.
They were there.
And because they were, I know how powerful it is to simply be.
