PAGE 10 — Memoir Shard: The First Small Yes Back to Myself

BLOG SERIES: The Twelve Pages of My Own Cheerleader

PAGE 10 — Memoir Shard: The First Small Yes Back to Myself

Recovery didn’t arrive as a miracle.

It arrived as a whisper.

A tiny yes.

A decision so small it barely registered — but it changed everything.

After the collapse, I didn’t rise like a phoenix.

I shuffled.

I paused.

I sat with the wreckage of a life built on over‑functioning and realised I couldn’t go back to who I’d been.

My body wouldn’t let me.

My brain wouldn’t let me.

And for the first time, I didn’t force myself to override either of them.

I started with the smallest things:

Drinking water. (Menopausal over haul eating plan)

Sitting down before I fell down.

Letting silence be silence.

Letting myself stop.  (without guilt when I could)

I didn’t know it then, but these tiny choices were the architecture of a new life —

one built on listening instead of pushing,

on honesty instead of performance,

on my own needs instead of everyone else’s emergencies.  (trying to practice what I preach)

It wasn’t dramatic.  (A little Erratic)

It wasn’t pretty.

But it was mine.  (My Time)

The first steps toward a self I had never been allowed to meet.

I was already becoming my own cheerleader — I just didn’t know it yet.

Footnote: Twelve future chapters for a book.