**The Night Hope Came Quietly** Christmas moves with a gentle grace, threading it's quiet beauty through every corner of the world. It glimmers in storefront windows and dances on street lamps. It hums in carols that float from open doors. It shimmers in garlands, ribbons, and gifts wrapped with hope. And still, there are nights when your heart feels heavier than the season seems to allow. We treasure the lights, the music, the feasts, and the laughter. Yet, if we are honest,

**The Court of My Own Heart** There are places inside us we’ve never named, rooms we’ve tiptoed around, verdicts we inherited without understanding, and echoes we believed were true because they were loud. We spend years trying to fix, strive, improve, overcome, but sometimes healing begins not with effort, but with seeing. This is the story of the room I never meant to build. A courtroom inside me, shaped by fear, old voices, inner expectations, and parts of myself that had