To the person I’m becoming (2025)
Dear Marie -
This was inspired by Sunita’s letter, which you can read here. Thank you, Sunita, for the creative nudge through your words to yourself.
Take a deep breath. Let it fill your chest, settle into your bones, and center you in this moment. You’re here. You’re whole. And you know what it took to get here.
You know the suffocation of mornings in burnout, when rolling back over felt like the only option.
But look at you now... ❤️🔥
You’ve climbed your way back to enjoyment and the joyful anticipation of what’s to come, a life filled with meaning and possibility. This return from survival to savoring is everything.
Relish in your signature “What do I GET to do today?” spirit.
It’s time to move forward.
Let’s talk about your Creative Drive.
This is the year for your creative process.
Your creative drive isn’t optional. It’s your force, your lifeline, and what enlivens you. Seeking knowledge, meaning-making, picture-making, writing, and playing with ideas bring you home to yourself.
Nurture it like your life depends on it, because it does.
Your creative sanctuary isn’t just a cabin in the woods; it’s the heartbeat of your process. Your heated blanket, the white noise, Kombucha’s bunny love, your Keurig, and all your tools are pieces that foster grounding.
This refuge isn’t selfish. It’s essential. That’s a fact.
I know you couldn’t access your gifts - for a long while there - during that season of trauma. However, they weren’t as dormant as you think. While the stormy darkness passed through, your gifts recharged and strengthened. Now, they’ve returned like a tsunami: hungry, alive, unstoppable.
Feed them. Trust them. Let them guide you.
This new wave of flow is your rite of passage: your bridge from burnout to Marie 3.0. You’re not “making up for lost time”; you’re reclaiming it. Let the housework and eBay store wait. Others will handle what needs doing. Your body will tell you when it’s time to soften.
So, while the momentum is fun, energizing, and deeply satisfying, let yourself get carried away, fully immersed in this intoxicating rush.
Keep guiding people through Story Work. It’s not just what you do; it’s who you are. A meaning-maker. A storyteller. A guide. Story Work roots you, too, remember.
As you nurture your creative process this year, remember that creativity comes from living, learning, playing, and being curious.
Let’s talk about Curiosity, Lifelong Learning, and Play.
You’re wired for discovery. Embrace that.
Read more in 2025 than you did in 2024.
Finish the Creative Notebook class and let it become a ritual.
Learn even more about noticing, self-awareness, identity, and the interplay of time, memory, and meaningfulness.
Explore how serendipity and synchronicity shape meaningful lives.
Dive into dream stories. Try lunar journaling.
Take a stained-glass workshop. Or a beekeeping class.
Ride a horse.
When the storm damage is repaired, buy a new puzzle board. Return to doing puzzles. Include the family.
In August, travel to Scotland to meet Michelle and Monique. Celebrate how far you’ve come. Let their presence—and the serendipity of this meeting—renew your belief in the expansive possibilities of your work and your life.
Above all, stay curious.
Keep asking “What if?” and allow the answers to guide you into new possibilities.
Express Yourself Freely in 2025 and beyond.
Nuance is everything, and everything is nuanced. The world, people, stories: all layered, all intricate. You’ve learned to hold this nuance with compassion and patience. Sharing this understanding through Story Work is quiet activism, a way to deepen thinking, living, and connection.
One tiny story can ripple through a life, reframing everything it touches.
So, keep going.
Your written words are your sanctuary and your sword. Writing opens you, gives you access to your thoughts, and pours out what you’re holding. It anchors you. It’s where you are most at ease, being your true self.
Be an open book in your writing. Vulnerability flows here in ways it doesn’t elsewhere.
You can write about breaking down as a mother, surviving PTSD, or being targeted for sex without reserve. But expressing gratitude to other humans? Telling people they matter? That’s where you are tender, raw, and exposed. Perhaps it’s because these interactions demand a closeness that challenges your boundaries.
It’s not just the words but the emotional closeness, the eye contact, and the physical proximity that make you squirm. Perhaps it’s the sensory overload of Autism or the inner heat of Avoidant-Dismissive attachment discomfort whispering, “Don’t go there. Make it stop.”
Lean into these moments with care. Thoughtfully customize your approach for each person. With some, go deeper; with others, small steps are enough.
The goal is to go farther than you have before for the sake of leaving nothing unsaid, while honoring your boundaries and fluctuating capacity.
Let’s talk about Relationships and People.
This era of parenting has created more time and freedom for you and Dave. Enjoy it. Protect it.
Dave is your biggest supporter, timelessly having proved he loves you through all your intellectual, creative neuro-intricacies that sometimes make others say you’re “too much.”
Love him hard. Remember his jawline. Go on day dates while the kids are at home. Have more sex, even when you don’t feel like it. Especially when you don’t feel like it. The slow, connected, intimate kind of sex. Be less of a nag, more of a builder. He’s grown just as much as you have. Celebrate that. Celebrate him.
Your kids need you to notice them. They say they don’t, but they do.
Go on an adventure with each kid. Stack the wood while Levi chops it. Take him out for thrifting and Taco Bell. Soup is Kendall’s food love language. Make more soup. Take her out for Boba. Remind Dave to take her to the Sushi Shack. Let them see the best parts of you in your element so they believe they can live like this, too.
About your mother: This is messy, and it’s going to stay messy. There’s no map, no script, no clean solution for estrangement. You owe yourself honesty, boundaries, and self-respect. That’s enough. It has to be enough.
Honor the relationships that make you feel safe. You know who they are.
And this includes the relationship with yourself…
Let’s talk about Self-Understanding and Compassion.
Own the labels that represent you beautifully:
Enneagram 5: Curious, independent, and fiercely thoughtful.
Burned-out gifted kid turned tenacious creative.
AuDHDer: Intense, brilliant, and gloriously unconventional.
Living in the intersections of neurodivergent hyperfocus, a kaleidoscopic view of the world, and a deeply sensitive heart.
But this intensity comes with a cost: an exhaustive level of processing, where your brain and nervous system labor tirelessly to decode the world around you. The depth you bring is often beyond comprehension or misunderstood, and yet, it’s a testament to the extraordinary beauty of how you experience life.
Hashimoto’s Disease, Dysautonomia, MCAS, Perimenopause. They don’t rule your life. They’re just proof of your resilience.
Unmasking is reclamation. You’re safe now. Safe to be seen. Safe to stand tall. Safe to be unapologetically, fully you.
You’ve identified when you’re vulnerable. You’ve named it. Remember, Marie, that your freedom is on the other side of your fear. Expressing love is a practice, just like Story Work itself.
Keep practicing.
Let’s talk about Daily Living.
Return to what lights you up often. Choose pleasurable experiences from your tried-and-true practices, like a personal menu for joy, every single day:
Slow mornings with coffee and morning pages.
Put your bare feet on the earth. Let it pull you back to yourself.
If your body won’t let you hike or walk, throw a blanket down on the forest floor and just be there.
Notice the glow of twinkling lights scattered across the mountains in winter.
Listen to - and I mean really hear - the katydid symphony all summer. Remember the first time you heard them play for your family in Zirconia?
Steep in the tiny moments with your family (these are the good ol’ days):
Kendall’s new drawings, new costumes, new glimpses of the child that remains.
Levi being exactly who he is: social, vibrant, and alive in his own ways.
Running around doing errands with Dave.
The ‘Let’s Get Lost’ game with the kids, the Jeep, and the Blue Ridge Parkway
Quiet nights in your cabin with nothing to do but dream, create, and exist.
Heartland.
Eat the pizza.
These aren’t just comforts. They’re fuel.
Go with what you want and need, not what society or others expect of you. Pay attention to your food. Track what you eat, not obsessively but mindfully. Walk, even if it’s just around the house. Take your laptop to the porch.
Buy the red light therapy. Rent the HBOT.
Root yourself in the pace that aligns with you, not with what society, capitalism, or the patriarchy expects.
Your pace is your own, Marie. It is enough. It always has been.
Don’t forget about your Dreams, Marie.
This year, meet every season, challenge, and relationship with curiosity—not judgment.
You will get answers about your health. SIBO, Lyme, or something else—you will start healing. Healthism isn’t your guide; your unique needs are.
Listen to your body and treat it with care.
Your work, the DGS Story Work practice, is not just a framework but a lifeline. It holds the potential to become an evidence-based therapeutic tool, a bridge to healing for countless others. Its understated strength will resonate deeply.
The new Playbook will invite readers into the life-changing practice of noticing, of truly seeing the stories shaping their lives.
Your Substack publication will bloom under your care this year. It’s your space for exploration, connection, and depth.
Every step you take is proof that you’re living fully, boldly, and awake. Trust your dreams to guide you there, even the ones that seem like mountains. They are no bigger than the mountains you’ve already climbed.
You’re steady. Whole. Flourishing. Marie, you’ve already arrived.
Keep going.
Keep noticing.
Keep creating.
And most importantly, keep coming home to yourself.
With love and unwavering belief in you,
Marie