My Manifesto:
The Emerging
Have you spent your whole life being “the strong one”—while your own life waited in the wings?
I am 57, and I am finally meeting myself for the first time.
For sixteen years, my body was a tool for caregiving.
For a decade, my heart was a reservoir for grief.
Through three bouts of sepsis, my life became a battlefield of survival.
I was “Making-it-work Karen.” “Grief-carrying Karen.” “Postponed Karen.”
I did not waste my life. I postponed myself so others could live.
The Sacred Exit
In August 2024, I made what I now call the Sacred Exit.
I drove across the country—away from the familiar, toward the unknown—not because I was lost, but because I was finally ready to be found.
I landed in Las Vegas. I reunited with my son. And I started asking a question I’d never had the space to ask before:
Who am I when I’m not surviving? Who am I when I’m fully alive?