Becoming Beyond Survival: Rising from the Rubble and Ashes

There’s a version of me that rose from rubble.
She was bruised but unbroken. Scorched, but still standing.
She kept going—not because she had all the answers,
but because something sacred inside her refused to quit.

I’ve walked through fire.
Not just hardship, but refinement.
The kind that burns away what no longer serves.
People call it survival.
But it’s more than that.
It’s becoming.

Someone once told me, “You’re like the Phoenix—rising from the ashes of a blazing fire.”
And I felt that truth settle deep.

Because I didn’t just survive the flames. 
I lived through the aftermath—the rubble.
The quiet grief. 
The slow rebuilding. 
The long, lonely middle where everything familiar was gone but nothing new had arrived yet.

If you’ve ever been there, you know:
Surviving and thriving are not the same.

There comes a time when the armor you once needed starts to feel heavy.
When exhaustion whispers that perhaps the battle isn’t yours anymore.
And something gentle inside you begins to rise up and say—

“You’re allowed to want more than just ‘getting by.’
You were made for more than survival.”

I share this not just as my story,
but as a mirror—
because I know I’m not the only one rising.

Maybe you too have walked through fire.
Maybe you’ve stood in the ashes of what was, unsure of what could be.
Maybe, like me, you’re learning that thriving requires a new kind of strength:
Not the push, but the permission.
Not the grit, but the grace.

Thriving invites us to breathe again.
To soften.
To let in joy without apology.
To live like light is no longer a threat—but a gift.

So I rise.
Not to prove anything.
Not to go back to who I was.
But to live fully as who I’ve become.

The Phoenix doesn’t return the same.
She rises whole.