Grace Isn’t Gentle
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.
Grace didn’t arrive in light. It came through impact, through echoes that still hum in my bones.
I was running, faster than I realized, wearing blinders I didn’t know I had on.
The cancer wasn’t really behind me. Not yet. It lingered in my cells, in my fears, in the places I tried to rebuild.
I thought I’d outrun it, but it followed quietly, waiting for me to slow down and face what was still unfinished.
And then came the moments that split my story into before and after —
A hand I loved turned sharp.
A voice I trusted became a warning.
A slap, quick as lightning, burned its mark deeper than the skin.
Grace didn’t show up to soothe me.
It showed up to make me see.
There was the boy on the bike, the gun, the shattered glass, the reminder that life can pivot in a breath.
That safety, once cracked, never fits quite the same way again.
That grace sometimes hides in the mere act of still being here.
Grace isn’t gentle.
It’s the storm that clears the way.
It’s the mirror that doesn’t lie.
It’s the whisper that says, “You’re still here. And that’s enough.”
Every moment I’ve shared here lives inside Running Shoes.
I didn’t tiptoe through my life, I laced up, put on my boxing gloves, and fought my way forward.
That’s where grace found me, not on my knees, but standing, bruised and unbroken.
With fire and grace,
Carole
#fiercefragilebrave
https://linktree.com/carole869
