My Musings – Page 53 – Not your ordinary tales

Hard Things Make You Stronger, But Only If You Let Them

Most people think strength comes from toughness—grit your teeth, push through, win. That’s only half the story. Strength goes beyond muscle or willpower. It’s about learning when to fight and when to adapt. It’s about knowing that just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s impossible, and just because you failed today doesn’t mean you’re done. I used to think that being strong meant never breaking. Now I know that true strength is about how you put yourself back together. Life throws storms at everyone. Some are physical, some are …

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Little Matches: A Memoir of Finding Light in the Dark – Book Review

Grief isn’t a story. Until it becomes one. There’s grief, and then there’s grief that leaves you gasping for breath. "Little Matches" by Maryanne O’Hara is the latter. It’s a book that doesn’t just tell a story—it sits with you, presses into your chest, and makes itself at home in the quiet spaces of your heart. And yet, somehow, it doesn’t leave you drowning. Instead, it hands you a match in the darkness. Maryanne’s daughter, Caitlin, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) at two years old. If you don’t know much about CF, let’s …

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The Cost of Love

No one warns you about the quiet moments. When a song plays, and it brings them back. When you reach for your phone, forgetting there’s no one to call. When you catch yourself smiling at a memory before the weight of absence settles in. Grief doesn’t announce itself with grand gestures. It lingers in the spaces love once filled. It sneaks into conversations, into familiar places, into the person you’ve become because they were once there. And yet, I wouldn’t trade it. Because grief is the price you pay for love. And if I had to …

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Faith Is a Choice

I used to think faith was something you either had or didn’t. That some people just believed, and others didn’t, as if it was a gift you were born with. But that changed when I stood at the foot of a mountain, staring up at the peak that felt too far to reach. Doubt crept in, a voice telling me I wasn’t strong enough, that this was too much for me. But then, I remembered: faith is a choice. It wasn’t knowing for sure I could do it. It was choosing to believe I could, even when uncertainty weighed heavy. So I took one step. Then another. …

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Collecting Positivity Like Scraps of Sunlight

At 12,000 feet, my legs were shot, my breath uneven. The summit wasn’t happening, and I had made my peace with that. Almost. Then, my trek leader said, “You’re doing great.” I knew she said it because I needed to hear it, not because it was true. But I clung to it anyway. Like a small flame in freezing wind. Later, when I stumbled into camp, someone offered me tea without asking. Another smiled and said, “Today was tough, huh?” Just that—no judgment, no advice. I pocketed it all. You take positivity wherever you find it. A kind …

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The Pain That Stays

I thought it would fade. That with time, it would dull, shrink, maybe even disappear. But some pains don’t listen to logic. They settle in, uninvited, making a home where I wish they wouldn’t. On my last trek, I told myself I was past it. That I had made peace with not summiting. That the self-doubt I carried wouldn’t weigh me down anymore. But then, as I watched others push ahead with ease, the familiar sting crept back in. It shouldn’t matter, I told myself. I made my choice. I don’t regret it. And yet, the ache lingers. A quiet …

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