There was a time in my life when I avoided conflict by any means necessary. Translation: I kept silent as I was dying inside and never spoke my truth. Everyone thought I was the most easygoing person in the group because I went along with whatever they suggested even when my insides were silently screaming, “He_ _ no!” I did my share of crying; it’s just that I was careful not to ever let anyone see. I was Flexible Flo until one day I just had no more bend or stretch left in me and so I began to resist. You would have thought I’d developed some highly contagious disease. So-called friends began to drop off like flies in a Raid factory. Still, I just couldn’t budge; I was tired of yielding wh
I imagine that when we were little, every little girl dreamed of becoming a princess or a movie star. We thought that we would be hugely successful at life and love and that all of our wishes would come true. We looked for falling stars to make wishes upon; we blew on dandelions and hoped that the wind would carry our wishes to whatever fairy makes them come true; we prayed. Somewhere along the line, reality set in. We realized that we had to be our own knights in shining armor and that fairies only exist on the silver screen. Some of us had the resilience to press on; others of us couldn’t face that reality and we took detours, some quite painful and long. I’ve made many detours in my life,
