Listen! listen! listen!

Let's talk about one of those moments when life felt like it was finally coming--together--only for the past to come knocking.  Everything was going well, and then my ex-resurfaced.  He came back, not just with words but with a ring, a proposal, and a promise of a fresh start.  And I said yes.  Before I knew it, I had packed up my life and moved to Maryland, stepping into a new role--not just as a wife, but as a mom and a stepmom.  I was trying to adjust, trying to make it all work.  But just like before, the cracks started to show.  There were other women.  There were other issues.  And yet, life was life.  I told myself to push through, to focus on the good, to build something stable in the chaos.  But here's the thing--when you ignore the truth, when you try to hold together something that was broken from the start, the weight of it all catches up to you.  And it did.  I learned that no matter how much you want something to work, it takes two people fully committed, fully honest, and fully present.  And that wasn't the case.  I'll dive deeper into what happened next, but I want you to sit with this--how often do we convince ourselves that things are okay just because we don't want to start over again?  How often do we settle for what feels familiar instead of what we truly deserve?