She Got A Way
A story about exhaustion, awakening, and finding the third way forward.
Through poetic storytelling and raw honesty, I explore what happens when the familiar paths — the ones we’ve always taken to fix, rise, or manage — suddenly stop working. This piece is about what unfolds when we allow something new to move through us, when we let the light find us in the quiet.
Sometimes the way forward isn’t left or right at all, but upward — into a wider sky.”
There are moments when life brings us to a crossroads — not the kind where you can simply flip a coin and move on, but the kind that asks something deeper of you. She Got Away was born in one of those moments.
Before I take you deeper into the story, I wanted to share a bit about what inspired She Got Away—the space it came from and the truth it continues to reveal to me.
I often write these pieces to understand my own seasons of exhaustion and renewal, to trace where the breaking becomes the becoming. What follows is what stirred this piece to life.
Behind She Got Away
Why I wrote this piece
This piece is part of The Upside Down, my ongoing creative writing series featured on The Lori Clarke Show and on my blog, where I share original stories and reflections about healing, transformation, resilience, and meaning-making.
Most Fridays, I release a new reflection — a space to pause, listen, and reconnect with what’s unfolding inside you.
“She is unafraid of the not-knowing. She revels in all she has survived: the boundaries she set, the places she burned to the ground, the towers she toppled, the bondages she cut herself free from. And then, for the first time, the words arrive clear and whole: She got away.
The phrase rumbles through her cells. Fractals of light sing it back: She got away. In her wildest dreams, she had never imagined the next step would feel like this. But she promises you — this is what happened.”
Want to listen or watch? Link to “She Got A Way” at bottom of page.
She Got A Way
One day, not too long ago, I felt completely spent — the kind of tired that sleep can’t fix. Usually, when I reach that point, I give myself space: a nap, a day off, a small pause to recharge.
But this time was different.
I had done all the things — every familiar ritual and precaution to safeguard perspective and rise above the patterns I wrestle with daily: the cycling narratives, the ongoing excavation of how to stop carrying other people’s burdens so deeply that their suffering begins to shelter my own light.
And that’s when the light found me.
In that moment, I realized I had performed every familiar routine to perfection, completed every necessary step — yet still arrived at emptiness. At the crossroads of exhaustion, something deeper pressed through: the root beneath the root. It was uncomfortable, but it opened a new direction I hadn’t seen before.
I asked myself: What’s happening? Does this feeling carry meaning? I’ve done all the things — so what else needs to be released?
Then it struck me. The very rituals and familiar ways that once helped me heal had become the loops keeping me circling the same old ground.
That realization cracked something open.
For the first time, a new kind of solution revealed itself — one that didn’t rely on worn-out labels from the past or the tired affirmations I’d repeated to calm my anxiety. Something deeper wanted my attention — and so, I listened.
I can’t explain exactly how or why it happened, only that I stayed open long enough for a small thread of light to reach me. And in that moment, everything shifted.
It only took a moment.
Yes, the timing was right.
And She Got Away sprang to life from that space — from my inner world, flowing through my fingertips onto the keyboard.
Reminding me that in every moment, there’s always a third option — a She Got Away moment — when the wind at our backs gathers around us, creating a new opening to rise.
This story is part of The Upside Down, my ongoing creative writing series featured on The Lori Clarke Show and on my blog, where I share original stories and reflections about healing, transformation, resilience, and meaning-making.
Listen to or watch “She Got Away” from The Lori Clarke Show, part of my creative writing series, The Upside Down — stories about healing, reflection, and transformation.