The most epic part of this? Since I got back from Lions Den Live, I’ve been thinking about my biggest takeaway “nugget”. I just put it all together starting this morning with ANOTHER convo I’ve been having with my friend, Santa Clause, about the quiet but powerful strength of a Steel Magnolia … which is something I strive to be … and how sometimes it’s the people who just stand strong in the storms of life – always bending but never breaking – who are the most powerful forces of all. That was my Grandpa. That was my Grandma (MARY … not Ida, lol). THAT WAS ZACK!

Why, Cat?

Why are you doing this? What’s your reason? Who’s your audience? Will you ever actually take the stage? Guess what, people? Although the day will surely come when I’ll finally reach for a microphone and hit an actual stage with the unfiltered roar of all the truth bombs and hard-earned wisdoms I’ve gotten to earn on a road that’s been laden with broken glass, bloodied hands, and tired feet, for now?

THIS is my stage!

He is. She is. It’s all about my babies … and then one day, THEIR babies. I’m here to channel the power, strength, and epically perfect mistakes of my ancestors all the way back to the cave, move the dial, change the narrative, and write an epic ending to what most people would call a tragedy.

It’s the burning question AND I’VE BECOME IT! I’m the pen. I’m the paper. I’m the sword. I’m the scourge. I’m the scion. I’m the message.

I’M “THE ONE”!

I’m a living love letter to anyone who crosses my path, but mostly to the healthier fruits that will surely fall from our family’s once sick and dying tree in the years to come.

One hundred years from now I will be an ancestor. Pray GOD that “mine” will realize how hard I fought for them to rise above MY ashes even higher than I have risen above the ones lain beneath my wings that propel my ascension.

One of the speakers I was privileged to sit before this weekend, Tu “Ronin” Lam said:

One moment can change the day. One day can change a life. One life can change the world.

Well, if this exchange between me and my son isn’t proof positive that I’m exactly where I need to be doing exactly what I was meant to do, then … well … never mind that. IT IS! You see, these weren’t just simple texts between a mother and her son. They were “a moment” … a moment for me to take the most important stage of all before the “kid” who is still very much watching me.