There were countless moments where I could have left this path of following my inner truth and knowing and returned to the quiet, safe, and supportive life I once knew and loved.

When silence echoed, and doubt, guilt, anxiety, and fear pressed into my ribs like broken glass, I took deep, shaky breaths. Yet, I stayed true to myself, true to my knowing.

I remained, not because I was trapped or weak.

I remained because something ancient and sovereign in me whispered:

“This is not the end of the story. Stay.”

I stayed my course when people around me echoed my own fearful whispers:

“You made a mistake.”

“He was the best you will get in this life.”

“You are crazy for following this unproven path.”

“Why would you give up safety and comfort?”

“Why couldn’t you be happy with the good you had?”

“What are you following anyway?”

“Why can’t you just be like everyone else?”

When the phone never rang and my life emptied out, I still stayed my course.

I watched my life break apart into pieces I could no longer reassemble, but I stayed my course.

I stayed my course when my love echoed unanswered.

Even when the knowing inside me had yet to ground into this 3D reality, I stayed my course.

I stayed my course not in stagnation, but in trust. Each time I felt the call to return to the familiar, I heard that ancient echo: “This is not the end of the story. Stay. You are laying the foundation for something new and slowly fitting the pieces together. Just stay.”

I stayed my course even when pressures, fears, and doubts engulfed me. Their teeth and claws sank into my raw, emotional flesh, ripping me apart. Sometimes, I was certain I’d fracture into a thousand pieces, or my heart would turn to stone. But I didn’t fracture. My heart stayed open and soft. To my surprise, I grew more whole, more aligned to the still, quiet voice of knowing within me. I started to trust myself in ways I had previously outsourced.

I stayed in love with what could become even when it hadn’t yet provided me with tangible evidence.

I stayed in love with the knowing and truth that had always been in me. It had just been buried deep for decades and was now slowly rising to the surface to be remembered.

I stayed in love with the unconventional, sometimes impossible ways my path reached back, touched me, and revived the vision I was about to abandon. When the candle threatened to burn out, I’d find a proverbial hand reaching to me through the ethers, and an inner message whispering, “You don’t need to know the whole path, just trust this next step.” Each step confirmed I was not lost but blazing a trail.

In doing so, I became the flame who stayed.

I became the flame that stayed, not for approval or proof, but because I knew the blueprint lived inside me.

Truth over comfort, this was what kept the flame in me aligned, unwavering, and present.

I became the flame who defied logic, safety, and better judgment to trust the call of potentials radiating readiness to be birthed and whom I was entrusted to midwife.

I realized my journey, my choices, my path were not wrong, just early.

I realized the ache was not my prison. It was the pressure that forged the quill I use to both express and create with.

And now I write my truths and my remembering with the fire I never let go of. This is the foundational thread, the gravity that holds me to this path as it continues to unfold.