A personal reflection on perimenopause, women’s health, and navigating hormonal change with greater awareness, support, and self-compassion

I turned 44 this July and have found myself arriving at a new chapter of womanhood, hello, perimenopause.

My desire to write and share my words around this often-taboo subject is simple: to acknowledge perimenopause and menopause with more openness, less shame, and deeper support. This transition is not something women should feel they have to navigate alone.

A personal reflection on addiction, abandonment, grief, family systems, and the difficult healing of releasing someone’s outcome

I am very familiar with addiction. I know the hurt, the pain, the confusion, the abandonment, and the heartbreak addiction causes loved ones.

My sister and I grew up with addiction in our family system, and we experienced firsthand the ways addiction can fracture a family—especially the innocent hearts of children. If I were to name the deepest imprint addiction left on me, it would be abandonment. That is the truest wound I know in the depths of my core from loving someone affected by addiction.