Dear Fear
written by: Lisa V
Dear Fear,
Let’s start on a positive note.
Thank you.
You pushed me when everything fell apart.
You stood with me in the dark.
You kept me alive when I didn’t even know who I was anymore.
Together, we survived.
But surviving isn’t the goal anymore.
You’ve been both my shadow and my shield.
My tormentor… and sometimes, my motivator.
We’ve walked through betrayal.
We’ve sat in fight-or-flight for years.
We’ve carried the weight of generational habits that told us:
Be small. Be quiet. Be grateful. Don’t rock the boat.
Remember when we rescued that little girl with the stutter?
She’s brave now.
We did that.
And here we are again
Betrayed.
Burned out.
Back at the edge of another cliff.
But this time, it’s different.
Because now I know:
This isn’t punishment.
This is transformation.
It’s not the end
It’s the beginning.
We are not broken.
We are rebuilding.
Yeah, it’s messy.
Yeah, it’s painful.
And yeah, this work never stops.
But damn, it’s powerful.
I see now that my identity wasn’t mine
It was inherited. Conditioned. Controlled.
Told to work hard,
Keep the peace,
Put marriage and family first,
And maybe we’d be taken care of.
Bullsh*t.
We were told we need a “purpose” to be worthy.
But what if our purpose is just to live?
To heal?
To get curious, and finally
Choose ourselves?
Not out of ego.
Out of necessity.
We’ve spent too long chasing validation
through jobs, relationships,
and other people’s definitions of success.
It left us empty.
Now?
We choose wholeness over hustle.
Healing over proving.
Curiosity over control.
Fear I don’t want to shut you out.
You’ve helped me more than you know.
But now, I need you to trust me, too.
Because stepping into the unknown again
doesn’t mean danger anymore
It means growth.
It means rewriting everything.
We’re not chasing titles, keeping the peace, or begging to be seen.
We’re done with that.
We’re stepping into our own definition of safety.
Of identity.
And of purpose not the kind they told us to chase,
but the kind we create by choosing ourselves.
And betrayal?
That wasn’t the breaking.
It was the breakthrough.
So here’s the truth:
We’ve got this.
Together.
Always.
- Dear Fear - October 9, 2025
- Becoming Me - July 5, 2025
