
I. AM. HERE! 👩🦽❤️🔥👑
Beloveds,
Look at this picture.
No—really.
LOOK.
I am standing.
But this post isn’t about standing.
Because some of us have spent far too long measuring life by what our bodies can do, what we’ve lost, what has changed, what takes longer now, or what somebody else thinks recovery is supposed to look like.
This picture says something much simpler.
I. AM. HERE.
Not the woman I was before everything changed.
Not some imaginary future version of me who has finally recovered enough to deserve celebration.
ME.
Here.
Now.
Alive.
Learning.
Growing.
Laughing.
Crying sometimes.
Getting frustrated sometimes.
Needing help sometimes.
Doing things differently sometimes.
And still completely, undeniably ME.
👩🦽❤️🔥
I have learned something about survival:
Sometimes we become so focused on getting back to where we were that we miss the miracle of discovering who we are becoming.
I don’t want to spend my life waiting to celebrate myself until everything works the way it once did.
I don’t want to postpone joy until recovery checks every box.
And I refuse to treat my life today like a waiting room for a supposedly better life tomorrow.
THIS IS MY LIFE.
And I am living it.
My wheelchair doesn’t erase me.
Needing assistance doesn’t erase me.
Doing something differently doesn’t make the accomplishment smaller.
A difficult day doesn’t cancel my progress.
And what my body cannot do today does not get to write the definition of who I am.
Different is not less.
Please hear that, beloveds.
Because maybe your life changed too.
Maybe your body changed.
Your family changed.
Your career changed.
Your plans changed.
Your finances changed.
Your relationships changed.
Your confidence changed.
Maybe something happened that divided your life into before and after.
And maybe you’ve been staring backward, wondering when you’re finally going to feel like yourself again.
What if becoming yourself again doesn’t mean becoming exactly who you were?
What if there is still life here?
Love here.
Purpose here.
Laughter here.
Beauty here.
Growth here.
God here.
YOU here.
Jesus/The Father has been teaching me that I do not have to despise today’s Cassandra while waiting for tomorrow’s Cassandra.
I can love her now.
Celebrate her now.
Take her picture now.
Let her laugh now.
Let her dream now.
Let her live now.
Because she did not disappear when her circumstances changed.
And neither did you.
“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.” — Psalm 118:17 KJV
That scripture hits differently these days…
I SHALL LIVE.
Not merely exist.
Not merely endure.
Not merely spend every day cataloging what changed.
LIVE.
🌳 Grow.
🍇 Taste what is still good.
💃 Dance however dancing looks today.
🔑 Open the doors that are in front of you instead of spending your whole life staring at the ones that closed.
❤️🔥 Love fiercely.
👑 Remember your worth.
And when fear, grief, shame, comparison, disability, disappointment, or somebody else’s expectations try to reduce your entire existence to what you cannot do—
look them square in the face and say:
I. AM. HERE.
I am not an inconvenience.
I am not yesterday’s version of myself gone wrong.
I am not a list of limitations.
I am not waiting for permission to call this life beautiful.
I survived enough to get HERE.
And HERE deserves my presence.
HERE deserves my gratitude.
HERE deserves my laughter.
HERE deserves my dreams.
HERE deserves my love.
And HERE deserves yours too.
So today’s challenge is ridiculously simple:
Show up for the life you actually have.
Not someday.
Not when everything gets fixed.
Not when you finally feel ready.
Today.
Take the picture.
Eat the grape. 🍇
Laugh loudly.
Use the help.
Try again.
Rest when you need to.
Celebrate the inch instead of mourning the mile.
And beloved—
BE HERE.
Because you are still becoming.
And your story is still moving.
🎬
Asking for A Friend,
Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe
Note: Many will look at this 📸 and feel sorry for me. Don’t pity me. I love me some me. It took time to get there but…I. AM. HERE!
One step.
One step.
One step.
You are loved. You are NOT alone.
Keep on being…YOU!
Unapologetically His.
Unapologetically yours. ❤️🔥👑




