I have worn many hats in my life, daughter, sister, friend, employee, business owner, wife, homeowner and the list could go on….but the hat I wore until it was faded and fit like a glove was mother. It is the role I stepped into with my entire heart and soul at the cost of other hats that I didn’t wear as well.

What I have received from all that I poured in; 4 amazing children who were my life’s work. What I lost, was myself and I regret not one moment of it. Why? Because at almost 50 years I began the painful process of rediscovering who I was, what I had lovingly given away and what was important to me beyond my family.

I won’t tell you this was a smooth or fun journey. I won’t paint a picture that I easily uncovered my worth, my value or myself outside of motherhood. I will tell you that I had incredibly, horribly painful moments and relationships that needed tending or severing. I will tell you, that it was worth every tear, desperate moment I spent crawling back to me. I learned some invaluable lessons about relationships, boundaries, unconditional love and family. Oh the tales these walls could tell.

This picture depicts how I felt when I realized how little of myself I could find. Others saw me as an independent, determined and courageous person, but inside, that person was so far gone, so untouchable from where I had arrived.

There is never a too late. Nothing is impossible if you are willing to be raw and vulnerable with yourself. That is where Life Coaching rattled me to my core. I permitted the realizations to wash over me, accept every bit of me and what I had allowed in my life. I stepped out of the place of victimhood and into a version of myself I never dreamed possible.