Hi Beautiful, I've been silent the majority of the month. I owe you an explanation. Your girl fell and badly bruised my hip, leg and the curvature in my spine. When I tell you, I have not EVER felt pain like I've felt this month. I thought I was losing my mind. I couldn't concentrate on anything OTHER than the pain. It consumed me. I couldn't complete the tasks on my secular job, my household or my community. I was lost in an ocean of medications, schedules, appointments, tests and the feeling that I was letting people down. Being a strong black woman, in my native community means, never saying you can't do it. But when you actually can't, it weighs on your spirit. That inner critic tells you, that you are failing. That voice sometimes became so loud it brought me to tears several days during my recovery. I had plans. I had surveys. I had information to share. I had a timeline. All of these were on the surface for me. What was underneath was simmering. I had worries. I had responsibilities. I had commitments. I had people counting on me to show up. I had a timeline. I finally said to myself. Sit. Be Still. Get Quiet. Meditate. Ask GOD. See we, meaning people, will forever have a plan, trying to get on purpose and KNOW that our timing is when things will happen. Not because we are arrogant. But because we have put in the work. We've rolled up our sleeves and done all that stuff to make things happen. And what we think we control we do not. God is in control. I asked God to help me with being patient. HE showed up in my injury. HE showed up to tell me that what is for me HE will give. HE showed up in a Tabitha Brown's reel to let me know reciprocity is real and that HE heard me. HE is timeless. Not every listen you are going to want to have. But we should learn for each one of them. I fell and stepped away for a moment so that I could show myself some grace and patience. Healing is a powerful thing a work. I am healing. I am seeking and reclaiming my calm. I am living life just as you are in our time of transition. I am human.

Today is World Perimenopause Day. Beautiful, I want to pause for a moment and just say: look at what we have walked through together this month. We have named 8 symptoms in the Psychological category of The 34™. We have held space for a heavy anniversary week. We have shown up for each other in ways that many of us never had women show up for us during this transition. Today is a celebration. And I want to celebrate YOU. The woman who is quietly doing the work. The woman who read a post this month and felt seen for the first time. The woman who took the cheat sheet to her doctor's office. The woman who whispered "me too" in the comments. The woman who is here, right now, still becoming. You are not alone. You have never been alone. Perimenopause is not a decline. It is a transition. And the woman on the other side of it is a force. A question for our space today: 👇 What is ONE thing you know about yourself now — because of what you've walked through this year — that you didn't know at the start of it? Naming it here makes it real. And I want to celebrate every single one of you. I'll go first in the comments. 💜 — Coach Dorothy