I wonder if you are anything like me - commuting through chaos every day, juggling the after-school schedule, checking work emails at stop lights - it can feel like life is speeding by.

Living in Chicago can sometimes feel like living in purgatory….Traffic purgatory. 😫

All of our fish are dead.

I can hear the humming of the tank, the bubbling water flowing through the filter. Just sitting there empty. They died long ago. Four small fish, slowly dwindling down to none.

Each loss was dramatic in some way to my daughter. “Pinkie’s DEAD?! Noooo!” 😭

My alarm just went off and I feel the comfort of sleep and of my little three-year-old cuddled up against me, the sound of her gentle breathing makes my heart swell with love for her.

In those few short minutes, I feel warm and safe.

I pull her close to me, to smell her skin, and give her kisses on her tiny resting face, inhaling the familiar scent of childhood - the sweetness of sleep.

On my walk this morning through my neighborhood, I couldn’t help but notice all the Halloween decorations transforming homes into something magical—like an eerie but playful celebration of the season.

You may think you need to move forward, but really, maybe you just need to pause.

Self-loathing is a real struggle. If you know the experience of feeling crushed under the weight of your own thoughts, your own judgments and criticisms, you know how absolutely engulfing it can be.

Let's gather our voices. Let's speak from the inner recesses of our hearts. Let's give voice to light.

Let's raise the frequency so that our light can reach even the darkest of places, and pull others out of despair, anger and hopelessness.

Because that is the space where pain flourishes, where violence rages and breeds.

I wrote a letter to my fear.

In fact, my fear has a name. Two names actually.
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Here’s a look into who I am: I’m Mari. ☀️ Or Marisol. (Or Mari-cucha. 🤣)

I’m a Mom, a wife, a Puerto Rican woman. I’m a coach. I’m a facilitator. I’m a former accordion playing, guitar dabbling creative.

I’m a dreamer. I’m a Scorpio. Rising Saggitarius. Whatever that means…..I’m not quite sure. 🤔

This is a story about speaking aloud and opening, unfolding, creating.

Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

Describe the truest, most beautiful world you can imagine.

A few months ago, I made an initial attempt to journal this and what came out turned into something slightly different than what I expected.