A year ago, I sat across from my therapist, who ended every session with the same question:
“Are you ready to write your book yet?”
I carried that question out the door every time, because I was stuck. I had a title for my first memoir, I had an outline — but then I hit the sentence that stopped me cold:
“How do I forgive the unforgivable?”
One Sunday, in church, the pastor preached on betrayal. It landed like lightning. My family had been betrayed. I knew betrayal in my bones. After the service, I pulled her aside and told my story quickly. She wrapped me in her arms and whispered in my ear:
“Give it to God.”
That was my answer. From above. Clear, undeniable, and right.
That’s how I wrote The Unforgiven Walk Alone.
The Next Chapter: Running Shoes
While writing that first memoir, a dear friend told me I needed to write not just one, but a series of memoirs. That’s how Running Shoes began.
This book is about all the running survivors of trauma do — running not as cure, but as instinct, as reaction, as the only way forward when the truths are too ugly to hold still.
For ten years, I ran. I ran from my story, from the faces that looked shocked when I told it, from the weight of what had been done. And in running, I collided head-on with new terror. Writing about that collision nearly broke me.
There was a weekend I lost entirely. My mind shut down; I remember nothing. That’s how deep the impact went.
But I know I’m not alone. There are others out there who run, too — for the same reasons. There will always be runners. That’s why I wrote Running Shoes.
How My Story Begins
I didn’t stumble into survival. I clawed my way here—barefoot, bleeding, fire at my back and silence ahead. The world called it strength. I called it stubborn breath. And still, somehow, there were butterflies — even in the ash, even when I didn’t deserve beauty, they landed.
That’s the truth: I didn’t find grace. Grace found me.
With fire and grace,
Carole
https://linktree.com/carole869