Presley Michelle

In 2020, my dear friend Holli Mostella recommended a book called by Glennon Doyle.

At that time, I was still in the cult but I was questioning. My inner knowing, my higher self, was trying to emerge. I started the book, knowing I wasn’t supposed to be reading it(per the JW’s)for a myriad of reasons. The most glaringly obvious being that the author happens to be married to a woman. That is a BIG no-no in the cult 😅.

Glennon shares her various experiences of battling an eating disorder, alcoholism, addiction, motherhood, marriage, divorce- she has quite a story. She also shares her religious evolution and journey of finding herself.

She started her career as a progressive Christian mom blogger/author. Now, she describes her spiritual/religious views as “brutiful”, brutal and beautiful.

She highlights internal spirituality and faith, training and trusting your intuition rather than outdated, patriarchal rules. This was such a wild concept to me at the time- my relationship with my higher power is mine alone?Just mine? Nobody dictating how I serve or how I love my higher power? No manmade discipline disguised as love?

Little did I know, that revelation was just one of many threads that were about to unravel.

Pain is hard. Pain is scary. But pain is also not optional. Now, suffering? That’s a choice. You can’t stop the bad thing from happening? That’s ok. You CAN stop it from consuming you. You CAN love yourself enough to heal from the thing that caused you pain.

It’ll be 4 years in September since we left the cult. I just cried last week over missing one of my family members. That pain never goes away, it’s unnatural for your family and friends to treat you like you’re dead. It’s always gonna hurt. I wish I could say I don’t miss them anymore, but that would be a lie. I miss them forever and always, but I also don’t let the sadness take over.

Give yourself grace, give yourself time, give yourself the love and support your inner child deserved.

The odds of you actually seeing this are slim, but to Glennon, Abby Wambach, Amanda(aka Sister)- thank you for making people feel seen and valued and loved. Xoxo

Picture it:

Sunday night.

I just took an everything shower 🚿(I braided my hair because I’m too tired to dry it🥴)

I got into freshly washed and dried jammies and cozy socks.

Then I crawled into my perfectly made bed, with my ice cold water in my Owala next to me (I’m a cup snob. This is the only cup I use, tbh I don’t get the Stanley hype 🤷🏻‍♀️).

It’s a snow day tomorrow, so I don’t have to set my alarm 😇.

It’s currently 13 degrees(the Real Feel is 0🥲), so I will be under my heated blanket with my dragon s**t and my Pennifer Love Hewitt until I inevitably fall asleep with my book on my face 🥰.

But don’t worry, real life starts all over again tomorrow morning when two little girls startle me awake asking if they can have vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup at 6:48am ☺️

Stay sane, my fellow snow day moms. ✨❄️