04/18/2026
If you know me, you’ll know this post was hard to create.
Not the words…the imagery. ME exposing ME!
The masks…they’re easy.
Put together.
Composed.
Held.
And yet—
I scramble to gather.
“The swan,” my mother oft said.
Graceful above water…
but beneath—
working, frantic, pushing, scared, surviving.
Strong.
That’s what they see.
But strength has had many faces.
Daughter of teen parents.
A girl in the 90s…
searching for connection—
while quietly struggling,
emotionally alone.
A woman who loved…
and lost herself in a marriage that didn’t hold.
A single mother…
trying to build something stable
while carrying so much unseen.
I sought connection,
even in harmful spaces that could not TEND me.
And still today I celebrate.
Executive.
Leader.
Change maker.
Healer.
Teacher.
And underneath it all—
still human.
Sometimes scared.
Sometimes unsure.
Sometimes doubting.
This week… I learned something different.
The power of being seen not in performance…
but in truth.
The power of community…
from behind the masks.
To sit in spaces where nothing had to be hidden.
Where stories were not judged— but held, tended to.
So today… I celebrate.
I celebrate the courage to be real.
To be witnessed.
To be soft.
Thank you, kindred spirit, for the bravery it took to create
“Behind The Chair: The Parts We Don’t Talk About.”
This was more than a training.
It was love.
It was pain.
It was a call to stand.
A hug.
A tear.
But ultimately…it was home, community, sisterhood.
Another something to celebrate.
And I am learning, I don’t have to carry it in shame or fear anymore.
“Every step I took got me to THIS life” -IngaRose, Celebrate Me
