Tag: Breakingthecycle

  • I Wasn’t Done… I Just Needed to Breathe

    theinkedvoice

    I didn’t stop writing because I had nothing left to say.   I stopped because it started to feel like too much. When I first started Tattooed Truths, it felt freeing. Like I was finally saying things that had been sitting in my chest for years. Stories I had carried quietly. Thoughts I didn’t even… Read more

  • Learning the Difference Between Guilt and Responsibility

    theinkedvoice

    For most of my life, I thought guilt meant I’d done something wrong. Turns out, a lot of the time, guilt just meant I was trained to feel responsible for things that were never mine to carry. That distinction took me a long time to learn. Because when you grow up in a house where… Read more

  • Tattooed Truths: A Year in Review (Pop-Up Post)

    theinkedvoice

    This was not the year everything suddenly made sense. It was the year I stopped pretending it didn’t hurt. For a long time, I thought healing would arrive as some clear moment. Like one day I would wake up and feel lighter, calmer, finished. What this year showed me is that healing rarely announces itself.… Read more

  • Post 23: The Apology I Had to Give Myself

    theinkedvoice

    For most of my life, I waited for an apology that never came. I waited for my father to acknowledge the damage. For someone to say, “You didn’t imagine it.” For a moment where the past was named, owned, and put to rest. It took me years to realize something uncomfortable. That apology was never… Read more

  • Post 22: The Apology That Never Came

    theinkedvoice

    There are some things you wait your whole life to hear, even when you know deep down you never will. For me, it was simple. Three words. “I’m sorry, Michael.” Not sorry for the yelling. Not sorry for the fear. Not sorry for the moments that shaped the way I walk into a room, or… Read more

  • Post 21: When “I’m Fine” Became My Shield

    theinkedvoice

    There are two words I’ve said more than anything else in my life. I’m fine. I said them when I wasn’t fine. When I was overwhelmed. When I felt something rising inside me that I didn’t know how to express. When I was scared that being honest would only make things worse. Growing up, honesty… Read more

  • Post 20: Why It’s So Hard For Me to Say No

    theinkedvoice

    I’ve spent most of my life feeling like the ground beneath me could shift at any second. When you grow up in a house where one wrong word could turn a quiet night into a warzone… When your dad’s mood was the weather system the whole family lived inside of… When “no” wasn’t a boundary,… Read more

  • Post 19: How Anger Learned to Live in Me

    theinkedvoice

    Anger never felt like something I chose. It felt like something that chose me. It lived in my home long before I understood what it was. It sat at the dinner table, echoed through the hallways, and filled the silence in between the yelling. It was the third parent in the house. And as a… Read more

  • Post 18: The Years the Blue Jays Won, and I Still Lost

    theinkedvoice

    This year’s World Series ended in heartbreak, the Blue Jays versus the Dodgers, a matchup that had all of Canada holding its breath. My son was devastated when Freddie Freeman caught that final out.  He’s eleven, and this was the first year he truly fell in love with the game. Checking scores, knowing players, asking… Read more

  • Post 17: The Quiet Never Left

    theinkedvoice

    When you grow up in a house where yelling is the soundtrack, quiet isn’t peaceful. It’s the pause before the storm. It’s the sound that tells you something’s wrong, even when you can’t name it. You start to feel the tension in your chest before it ever reaches your ears. You scan for signs: a… Read more