Living Authentically: My Ongoing Practice

I didn’t just wake up one day and become my true, authentic self. It’s been a process that came with growing pains—a process that started when I decided to write my memoir during the pandemic (2021).

That book, Compartmentalized, was my first real act of “truth-telling.” I told everything—the good, the bad, the uncomfortable. From Camptown, Virginia to the National Security Agency (NSA), my journey was full of hairpin turns, love, loss and great adventures. I wrote the God’s honest truth about things I had CompartMENTALized and never shared!

And when my book was finally published just as I turned sixty (60) years old in October of 2021, I was terrified! But also free.

You see, I had spent most of my life compartmentalizing—tucking parts of myself away into boxes for acceptance and love. I started that habit as a kid and didn’t stop.

But the cost of that emotional separation from reality (cognitive dissonance, maybe) would reveal itself later.

It all caught-up with me late 2016 -2017. With my second marriage falling apart, and constant challenges of civility, biases and systematic racism at work, I walked away from my job with the federal government in hopes of saving, what had become a marriage of distance and my mind.

Now retired in South Florida, caring for a sick family members and now where to turn but inward, I wrote. Divorce was eminent and anxiety loomed over my head.

That’s when I learned living authentically isn’t just a decision —it’s a daily practice and a lifesaver for me.

Writing and being afraid is worth everything!

#AuthenticLiving #MemoirTruth #Compartmentalized #HealingThroughTruth #WritersLife #SelfLoveJourney #NoMoreHiding #GodsHonestTruth

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