Rachel Clifton · Unedited · 25 September 2026

On wholeness

I’ve been really heartbroken lately.

It kind of snuck up on me. I wasn’t expecting it. And it’s a new kind of experience. This is a new kind of me.

I had a call with a friend today, and she said, “you don’t have to make something beautiful of this, Rachel.”

And it really stuck with me.

That process, that experience, that staying-with, that deepening, is more challenging for me than I’d like to admit.

But the wound is where the light gets in.

I feel like I’m starting again, always always always, and it’s gut-wrenching. I hate it.

But you have to start somewhere. And nothing strong can be built from shaky foundations.

Any strength I have, any wholeness I have, any integration I have, any power I am is resolutely me and my own.