Wendy B. Correa was seven years old when her father died, and nobody sat down to explain it. She just carried the grief, quiet and unnamed, for decades. In this week's episode of The Life Shift Podcast, Wendy shares what it was like to grow up without language for loss, survive an abusive stepfather, and then discover at 62 that her biological father was not who she believed him to be.
Listen on your favorite platform: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/s5e240
Watch on YouTube:
THREE things to think about:
Grief that isn't named doesn't disappear. It settles into the body and waits. Wendy didn't know she was still grieving her father until an acting class in her 20s cracked her open. The feelings had been there the whole time, stored and waiting for a moment of permission.
The truth is complicated, and it sets you free anyway. Finding out her biological father wasn't the man who raised her was disorienting, painful, and full of unanswerable questions. It was also the validation of every instinct she'd ever had about not quite fitting. Both things can be true.
Sixty-four percent of adults have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience. You probably know someone carrying something they were never allowed to say out loud. You might be that someone. Wendy's book, My Pretty Baby, is a reminder that the conversation is the beginning of the healing.
TWO things to ask yourself:
What story from your childhood are you still holding in your body that was never given language or space?
Is there someone in your life whose silence you've been misreading as strength, when it might actually be a story they've never felt safe telling?
ONE thing to try this week:
Write down one thing that happened to you before the age of 12 that you've never fully talked about with anyone. You don't have to share it. Just let it exist on paper, named, outside of your body, for five minutes.
Listen to Wendy's full episode at www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/s5e240. And if something in her story sounds like yours, reply to this email. I'd love to hear it.
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I created a short-form podcast, “It’s Okay If…” Each episode is under three minutes long and provides a permission slip to be human. I’d be honored if you subscribed to the show. New episodes are released every Wednesday at noon ET.
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