Welcome to Life After Lil

​ I didn’t realize how often I was saying yes before I ever checked in with myself. This feels like the beginning of something new for me. After a year of writing through grief, I can feel a shift—quiet, but real. I’m calling this a Year of Becoming. Lately, I’ve been paying attention in a different way. Not to what people say. Not to what I think I should feel. But to what happens in my body. A tightening in my chest when something feels off. A heaviness when I say yes but mean no. A quiet sense of ease when something is actually right. For a long time, I didn’t notice these things. Or maybe I did—and learned to move past them. To be agreeable. To be kind. To keep things smooth. I got very good at overriding myself. Grief has a way of interrupting that. When everything is stripped down to what matters, your tolerance for pretending gets smaller. Or maybe your capacity for truth just gets louder. Just recently, I felt it happen in real time. My mom needed help with something. And inste...