2023 was no joke. I wasn’t in a hurry to see it go, but making it to 2024 with my sanity intact feels like a victory lap. Honestly, 2023 was like a heavyweight champ throwing punches, and yeah, it got a few good hits in. Time was on some other level. You know how days usually zoom by? Well, in 2023, it was like this weird time warp. Fall hit, and I’m looking back like, “Wait, where did the year vanish to?” It was a whole blur.
Trauma messes with your sense of time.
January 2023 marked my first year as a mom – big milestone. February 2023, I’m catching flights to celebrate my birthday, and then, out of nowhere, it’s September, and I’m wading through this fog. Trauma messes with your sense of time. I’ve faced some rough years, but 2023 was on another level because now, it’s not just about me; I’ve got a little one depending on me.
I was on the receiving end of unwarranted aggression and chaos designed to minimize me while simultaneously push false narratives about who I am in a high stakes environment. It became glaring in real time that when people assert the control they perceive they have over your life to exert their agenda, it is done with enormous disregard for the life they trample on.
Permission to be vulnerable, burnt out, and not have it together is one of the greatest gifts I received in 2023.
As life threw punches my way, the struggle to survive while shielding my infant from the all-consuming negativity I was enduring was quite the challenge. Battling not to lose myself, my support systems played a crucial role in my fight against relentless aggression. Grateful doesn’t even cover it – their investment in my victory was a lifeline. I thank God for that. Without them, I would have continued to ‘strong woman’ it out. Permission to be vulnerable, burnt out, and not have it together is one of the greatest gifts I received in 2023.
Reclaiming my narrative, power, and peace birthed a bold version of me that rejected feeling small and embraced the authority of a Big Girl with an Infinite God.
After plenty of “remember who you are” moments, I evicted the version of me my tormentors were trying to create. It took time, but I had to keep reminding myself – they didn’t know the real me or whose I was. “Don’t tell God how big your problems are, tell your problems how big your God is” became more than a phrase, it became my reality.
With my tribe’s unwavering support and the covering of God, I not only recovered, but I also stepped into a transformative season of my life. From the ashes of trauma, beauty emerged. Reclaiming my narrative, power, and peace birthed a bold version of me that rejected feeling small and embraced the authority of a Big Girl with an Infinite God. No matter who tries to assert power over your life, remember, there’s nothing more powerful than God.
The curtain closed on 2023 with me breathing life into ideas, reviving dormant projects, and earning accolades I’d always aspired to. In 2024, I am showing off how infinite my God really is.
