Bible verses about being tested, not as silver-linings or coping mechanisms, but surrender mechanisms I and others I know have found truth and solace in through the battle with chronic Lyme disease ….

As sure as the earth orbits the sun,
and ocean tides
rise and fall with the moon,
all things are transient.

Grief is not a prison, nor a chain,

it is a passage, a rite, a necessary flame,

and when it burns through, the heart remains-

not as ashes, but richer to have lived in its name.

We are a dust given breath, briefly held in form,
matter sustained through the tide of each storm,
a flicker of light, then back to the sea,
where all things commune, made whole, set free.

Beneath the soil, where light can’t reach,

an ancient web threads its weave,

a silent pulse, a wordless speech,

where roots and mycelium, astute, perceive.

Dawn breaks, the world pulses
to life around me as I falter,
a familiar rhythm, now a distant hum,
slipping through my fingers like water.

The stillness is arresting,
and I melt,
into the quiet,
where even the sharpest edges soften,
and the world sheds its weight.

In the process of unfolding, there is a moment
when the mind, like a fortress, cracks—
stones loosen, walls shudder,
and the oasis it contains
begins to collapse.

The heart is a gateway, capable of transforming pain into something bearable, and sometimes even beautiful. But it is one of the first things that shuts off in response to trauma.

After experiencing acute or prolonged trauma, particularly in conditions like PTSD, the brain and body become locked in survival states…

In the shadows of solitude, You were there,

your light broke through the trenches of despair,

in the anguish of illness, frail and worn,

you were my anchor, in the eye of the storm.

In a world of neon lights and digital deception,
where we are free to roam, eyes glazed,
seeking, pursuing, our own crafted truths,
weaving, dreaming, each inside our own maze.

Endometriosis is a complex inflammatory, estrogen-dominant disease. It has been compared by researchers to cancer in the way it creates its own blood and estrogen supply, which creates a vicious cycle that makes it challenging to control estrogen dominance once it has begun to spread.
Before it was labelled endometriosis, it was known medically as ‘The Carreer Woman’s Disease."‘

“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.” - Rumi