Danae Mercer

It’s ok to start over — especially, my lovely friend, especially with your career.

I’ve spent the last few days surrounded by women who have reinvented themselves.

Women who have changed careers.
Started companies.
Became mothers.
Began again.

The retreat was brought together by , , , , and .london.

And it reminded me of something that maybe you need to hear:

Your life doesn’t have to look the way you imagined it would.

It’s ok to stop.
Fail.
Try.
Change.

It’s ok to GROW.
And lean into something new.

It’s ok to dream bigger,
And dream differently.

Your timeline doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s.

So remember, if you take one thing from this post today:
Darling soul, you’re not behind.

You’re becoming.
🤍

Photos 🤍 Thank you to .pisano for bringing us all together, and to my wonderful fellow attendees: , , .louise1, , , , , , , , and . It was such a special few days.

We didn’t grow up religious. Then my mom d+ed on the operating table. The doctors pulled her heart from her chest and pumped it in their hands and she came back, she came back to us.

But she came back changed.

Faith, which had never mattered to her before, became a cornerstone of her life — and subsequently, of ours.

And

I’m thinking about these things because we just baptized babyboy.

I know faith can be complicated to talk about.

But when the priest poured water on my baby’s head this weekend, I felt gratitude.

Gratitude for every church dinner that arrived at our house after my mom got sick.
Gratitude for the woman from church who drove me to school when my mom was in a coma, after I’d totaled my car.
Gratitude for the community that gave my mom hope in the final years of her life.

And gratitude, too,
That whatever force is out there,
Whatever shape it takes,

That it somehow led me here.

To this family.
One so full of love
Safety
And hope.

And while I’m not sure where my mom is
(Are any of us, really, sure where we go next?),

I think this weekend
Maybe, in her own way,
She was there
Right next to me
To us.

Hallelujah.