Over the past couple of months, I’ve been living inside a situation that felt hopeless and overwhelming. Learning motherhood for the first time. Repeated illness. Financial pressure and mounting debts that could, at one point, lead to us losing our home. Living in a new area, away from my community. A genuine sense that things could tip in a direction I didn’t know how to stop. Those are the facts. And they matter, because without naming them, anything that follows risks becoming false...

A practice for staying with what’s real; and still choosing to move forward It’s tempting, re-opening my business after maternity leave, to paint a rosy picture—one of perfect harmony and bliss in my little new family life. And that would be a lie. It would be an attempt to sell myself to you so that you trust me as a relationship coach, rather than share what feels real, honest, and deeply human about my current experience. Since becoming a mother, alongside the never-ending love that keeps...

Before I became a mother, I didn’t imagine myself as a perfect parent. I knew my humanity would come with me. But I did have hopes about the kind of parent I might be. I hoped I would find gentleness easy. I hoped I would have the spaciousness to offer choice, to move slowly, to stay present. I imagined myself holding him whenever he needed me, avoiding screens for as long as possible, responding with softness even in the messy moments. I wasn’t naïve about imperfection — I just didn’t...