Category: Song

Never, I replied.

When will you give up, defeat inquired of me.

Never, I replied.

Whe shall you walk away, fear admonished me?

Never, I replied.

When will you stop believing, naysayers, asked of me.

Never, I replied.

Never, never, never, I replied.

Nuff Said.

Cassandra

Beloveds, life is STILL before us.

In less than ten months, I have lost a twin of 57 years, had a major stroke, lost every dollar, been hospitalized three times in a three months span, had forever friends seeming to have walked away forever, lost another big brother, had my heart wounded by a friend, and a million other things I could  name.

I believe. Still. Call me foolish.

I’ll be His and your fool

apparently being foolish,

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

I choose to forgive.

Beloveds,

I find myself at a crossroads. Someone, who has come to mean a great deal to me, has chosen to do things, deliberately, to break our relationship.

Am I angry? Not, anymore. Am I sad? Perhaps.

Should I walk away? Would I have justification? Maybe.

MY faith tells me that we ought forgive 70 times 7. That’s 490 times.

I have forgiven many times over that.

Do I turn my back on the shared laughter, the shared sadness, the shared foolishness.

Ah, God, what do I do with me. Here. Now.

I, at least, choose to forgive. I have been thinking about agency. I have been doing my best to love as many as I can.

I have sought friendship and love for 50 plus years.

I don’t regret my heart’s choice to love a world that appears to care not a whole lot for Cassandra.

I’m STILL going to show up as long as I have breath. My life is NOT a cliffhanger. By MY choice.

I love yall. Periodt.

Why? Because, your lives are important to me. Why? Because, He first loved me.

Will I forgive my friend? I already have. Will I do so until the end of time?

Tune in next time…

standing at the cliff,

Cassandra

Note: Normally, I would have offered encouragement here. Understanding. Reconciliation.

About all I can muster, beloveds, is to remain in  my pulled out chair.

Have the day you choose to have. I shall do/ have the same…

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 — 6:00 PM

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 — 6:00 PM

What have you locked away? 🔐❤️

Beloveds,

Yesterday I left you behind a door.

I told you I was coming back.

I came back.

So…

What have you locked away?

Not what did somebody take from you.

Not what disappeared.

Not even what you lost.

What did you put somewhere safe because life taught you that leaving it out in the open hurt too much?

Your trust?

Your tenderness?

Your joy?

Your ability to believe somebody when they say, “I’m staying”?

Your dream?

Your hope?

Maybe even a piece of yourself?

Sometimes we lock things away because we are trying to survive.

And sometimes that works.

For a while.

A locked door can keep something from getting hurt again.

But, beloveds, a locked door works both ways.

It can keep danger out.

It can also keep you from reaching what you put inside.

👀

That’s the part I’ve been thinking about.

Some of the things we call walls were once protection.

Some of the things we call distance were once survival.

Some of the things we criticize ourselves for today may have been exactly what helped us make it through yesterday.

So I’m not asking you to beat yourself up for locking the door.

I’m asking something different.

Do you still need it locked?

👀🔐

Because something can begin as protection without having to become a life sentence.

Maybe you are not ready to throw the door wide open.

Okay.

Maybe today you only stand in front of it.

Maybe you put your hand on the knob.

Maybe you finally admit what is behind there.

Maybe you find the key.

Maybe you don’t turn it yet.

That still matters.

There is no prize for opening before you are ready.

There is also no rule saying something you locked away during one chapter of your life has to remain there for every chapter that follows.

Your joy may still be in there.

Your softness may still be in there.

Your hope may still be in there.

You may still be in there.

And maybe the question isn’t:

What is wrong with me?

Maybe the question is:

What was I protecting?

And then…

Do I still need to protect it this way?

🔐🗝️

Yesterday we found the door.

Today we looked behind it.

Yeah.

I’m coming for that lock tomorrow.

loving me some you
Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe

I was only trying to eat some crackers 😅

I was only trying to eat some crackers 😅

Beloveds, I’m in a goofball mood this 🌄 morning. Laugh with me…

I have to take my morning medication with food.

It was too early for an actual meal, and I was still entirely too tickled from negotiating with hard for some PTO, so I decided Ritz crackers would do.

Simple.

Quiet.

Responsible even.

Ritz looked at me and said,

“Nah fam.”

👀

Excuse me?

I know a cracker did not just get smart with me before sunrise.

Before I could properly address Ritz, Ziploc showed up.

Nobody called Ziploc.

Nobody asked Ziploc.

But Ziploc took one look at the situation and said,

“Both of you need to zip it.”

😐

Oh.

So this is what we doing this morning.

I went and got annoyed.

You remember annoyed.

Blue.

Extra annoyed.

Already irritated about having to exist.

Annoyed came marching into the kitchen like somebody had activated the emergency response system.

“What happened?”

I pointed at Ritz.

Ritz said nothing.

I pointed at Ziploc.

Ziploc suddenly discovered silence.

Interesting.

Then boring showed up.

Now boring had JUST gotten free from PTO jail and should have gone somewhere and enjoyed being boring in peace.

But nooooo.

Boring heard commotion and decided this was the perfect morning to develop a personality.

Boring leaned against the counter.

“So we fighting crackers now?”

I looked at boring.

Annoyed looked at boring.

Ritz looked nervous.

Ziploc tried to disappear into a drawer.

And then amused arrived.

Amused brought coffee and donuts.

☕️🍩

Did amused come to help?

Absolutely not.

Amused pulled up a chair, got comfortable, took a sip of coffee and said,

“Please. Continue.”

😂

About that time, we heard a tiny knock from down the hall.

Everybody froze.

hard peeked around the corner.

“Can I come out now?”

I said, “Are you prepared to respect the PTO agreement?”

hard thought about it.

“Define respect.”

Annoyed stood up.

“OH, I GOT TIME TODAY.”

😂😂😂

Amused reached for another donut.

Boring whispered, “This is why I preferred PTO jail.”

Then peace wandered through in pajamas, surveyed the entire situation and turned right back around.

I couldn’t even blame peace.

😂

And somewhere between Ritz getting disrespectful, Ziploc getting mouthy, annoyed getting more annoyed, boring finding a personality, amused eating donuts and hard trying to renegotiate a contract we JUST signed…

I realized something.

Life can be lifing and still be ridiculous.

Something can hurt and something else can make you laugh five minutes later.

You don’t have to wait until everything is fixed before you’re allowed to enjoy something good.

Joy doesn’t always wait on the other side of hard.

Sometimes joy shows up right in the middle of it.

Sometimes carrying coffee and donuts.

Sometimes hiding inside a ridiculous conversation with a sleeve of crackers.

Sometimes it’s just a few minutes when hard isn’t getting all the attention.

And, beloveds, we’ll take those minutes.

Every single one.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find patience.

Patience is late.

And annoyed has questions.

😅👖☕️🍩

loving me some you
Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe

Negotiating with hard for some PTO 👖☕️😂

Negotiating with hard for some PTO 👖☕️😂

PSA: Just thinking about this had me cracking up. You may get a chuckle at how ridiculous my mind gets. Blame God. He made me this way. For, non-believers, blame hard!😅

Beloveds,

So apparently hard and I needed to have a meeting.

I didn’t particularly want the meeting.

I wasn’t even sure who scheduled the meeting.

But hard has been showing up every day like it has perfect attendance and is trying to win Employee of the Month.

Sir.

Ma’am.

Whatever you are.

Have a seat. 😆☕️

We need to discuss your hours.

Because this working arrangement is no longer acceptable.

You’ve been arriving early.

Staying late.

Working weekends.

Showing up on holidays.

And frankly, hard, your commitment to this position is becoming excessive.

So I slid the paperwork across the table.

PTO REQUEST.

hard looked at me.

I looked at hard.

hard looked back at me.

I took a sip of coffee. ☕️

Don’t play with me.

I would like a Tuesday where putting on my pants does not qualify as an Olympic event. 👖😂

I would like an afternoon where absolutely nothing requires courage.

I would like to sit somewhere with a cup of coffee and have the biggest decision I make be whether I want another cup.

The answer is yes, by the way.

Always yes. ☕️🥰

I would like a little boring.

Some ordinary.

A few hours when nobody needs me to be strong, resilient, inspirational, determined, brave, or any other word people use when life has been lifing all over somebody.

I would like some PTO.

Paid.

Time.

OFF.

hard tried to explain company policy.

I stopped listening.

Because, beloveds, sometimes you have to tell hard:

We can coexist, but you cannot have every room in the house.

You can be here without being everywhere.

You can be real without being all there is.

And while I may not always get to choose when hard clocks in, I can still look for places where I get to clock OUT.

Maybe that’s coffee.

Maybe it’s music turned up louder than necessary. 🎶

Maybe it’s laughing at something ridiculous.

Maybe it’s sitting quietly.

Maybe it’s watching a movie you’ve already seen seventeen times.

Maybe it’s talking to somebody who doesn’t need you to explain why you’re tired.

Maybe it’s putting your pants on correctly the first time.

Listen.

We celebrate victories around here. 👖😂💯

And if you’re reading this while hard has been putting in overtime at your house too, come sit by me.

You are not the only one tired of being strong.

You are not the only one who wants a day when life doesn’t require quite so much from you.

You are not the only one who occasionally wants to hand hard a vacation request and say:

Sign it.

😆

And until we get that PTO approved, we’ll find little pockets of it wherever we can.

A song.

A laugh.

A quiet minute.

A good cup of coffee.

A chair.

A breath.

Something that reminds us hard may be part of life right now, but hard is not entitled to all of it.

So, hard?

Meeting adjourned.

I’m taking my coffee.

I’m taking my joy.

I’m taking my beloveds.

And I’m taking the rest of the afternoon off.

You can email me.

I’ll respond in three to five business days.

Maybe.

😂☕️👖🥰

Be encouraged, beloveds.

You are not doing this life thing by yourself.

And if hard won’t approve the PTO?

Tell hard we’re escalating this to management. 😆💯

loving me some you
Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe

Monday, October 5, 2026 — 6:00 PM



Where are you stuck? 🔐

Beloveds,

I’ve been thinking about the places inside us that nobody can see.

The rooms we don’t talk about much.

The doors we closed years ago.

The things we tucked away because life kept moving and we had to keep moving with it.

Except sometimes…

part of us didn’t.

Part of us stayed right there.

At the disappointment.

At the goodbye.

At the diagnosis.

At the betrayal.

At the moment the plan changed.

At the day life divided itself into before and after.

And everybody around us may see that we’re still living.

Working.

Laughing.

Showing up.

Taking care of people.

Posting pictures.

Making plans.

Doing what needs to be done.

But somewhere inside us there may still be a locked door.

🔐

So this week at 6 PM, I want to spend some time there.

Not to kick the doors down.

Not to tell anybody to “move on.”

Not to turn five evenings into a self-improvement project.

I want us to look at the locks.

Where they came from.

What they protected.

What shame has done with them.

What “should” has done with them.

Who we’ve given keys to.

And what love might have to say about all of it.

Because I am beginning to believe something:

We cannot understand why we’re stuck if we refuse to honor why we stopped.

❤️

So that’s where we’re beginning.

Not:

Why haven’t you moved?

But:

What happened there?

Because sometimes we look at somebody who hasn’t moved and assume they won’t.

Sometimes we look at ourselves and do the same thing.

Why am I still here?

Why haven’t I gotten over this?

Why am I still afraid?

Why can’t I trust again?

Why haven’t I started over?

Why am I still thinking about something that happened years ago?

Why can’t I just move?

Maybe because something happened there.

❤️

Maybe somebody broke your trust.

Maybe somebody left.

Maybe somebody died.

Maybe the job disappeared.

Maybe the marriage ended.

Maybe your health changed.

Maybe your body changed.

Maybe the future you had already pictured disappeared so quickly that your heart is still trying to understand where it went.

Maybe you tried again and got hurt again.

Maybe you opened the door once and learned exactly why you wanted it locked.

🔐

We have to be careful about calling every closed door fear.

Some doors closed because something on the other side hurt.

Some walls were built because somebody needed somewhere to breathe.

Some locks were installed because, at the time, they were protection.

And this is something I’ve been sitting with:

Some prisons were originally shelters.

👀

Something can save you in one season and confine you in another.

“I won’t let anybody close” may have helped you survive betrayal.

“I don’t need anybody” may have helped when the people you needed didn’t show up.

“I don’t expect anything anymore” may have softened disappointment.

“I’ll handle it myself” may have been the only option you had.

So I’m not coming for your lock tonight.

I’m coming for you.

❤️

Because maybe before we ask whether a door needs opening, we ought to honor the person who needed to close it.

Maybe instead of:

What’s wrong with me?

we ask:

What happened to me?

And then, gently:

Is what protected me then still protecting me now?

👀

Those are different questions.

One carries shame.

The other carries curiosity.

And love needs curiosity.

Love doesn’t stomp up to somebody’s locked door demanding:

OPEN UP!

Love knocks.

Love listens.

Love can sit outside awhile.

Love doesn’t assume the lock is an insult.

Love understands that sometimes the person behind the door learned that opening one could hurt.

🪑❤️

And maybe you’re the person behind it.

Maybe everybody else thinks you ought to be further along.

Maybe you think you ought to be further along.

We’re going to talk about that little word should this week too.

But not tonight.

Tonight I only want you to notice where you are.

No judgment.

No deadline.

No measuring your healing against somebody else’s.

No pretending the lock isn’t there.

Just:

Here I am.

And maybe:

This is why.

❤️

For those who share my faith, I believe God can meet us there too.

Not only after the door opens.

Not only after we get unstuck.

Not only after we become brave.

Right there.

Behind the lock.

Because I have learned something about God through some very hard places:

He does not need me to find my way out before He can find His way to me.

❤️

So tonight, beloveds, I’m not asking you to move.

I’m asking you to notice.

Where are you stuck?

And instead of condemning yourself for still being there…

maybe sit beside yourself for a minute.

You may discover that the person you’ve been frustrated with isn’t refusing to move.

They may simply need somebody to understand why they stopped.

And maybe that somebody can finally be you.

🔐❤️

We’ll come back tomorrow.

I’m not leaving you behind the door.

loving me some you,
Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe

Sunday Morning with My Bestie and me.

Sunday Morning with My Bestie and me

You Don’t Have to Arrive Okay to Take the Chair

Beloveds,

Come on in.

There’s coffee somewhere nearby. ☕

Something soft is playing in the background.

My Bestie and me are already sitting here talking, and there’s a chair pulled out for you. 🪑

Not tucked under the table.

Not waiting to see whether you qualify.

Pulled out.

Because we were expecting you.

And before you start trying to explain why you’re late, why you look tired, why you haven’t been around, why your faith feels shaky, why you’re angry, why you don’t know what you believe anymore, or why you almost didn’t come—

sit down.

You don’t have to arrive okay to take the chair.

That’s what I want to talk about this Sunday morning.

Because somewhere along the way, some of us learned how to dress pain up before we brought it into the room.

We learned how to say, “I’m blessed,” when what we really meant was, “I barely made it through this week.”

We learned how to smile while grieving.

How to praise while confused.

How to show up while exhausted.

And sometimes we learned that if we couldn’t make ourselves look okay, it might be easier not to show up at all.

But what if you didn’t have to do that here?

What if you could come tired?

Come questioning.

Come believing.

Come doubting.

Come angry.

Come hopeful.

Come numb.

Come laughing.

Come crying.

Come not knowing what in the world you are today.

And still—

there’s your chair. 🪑

I believe in God.

I call Him My Father.

I love Jesus.

That is part of who I am, and I’m not hiding it to make this table more comfortable.

But I’m also not asking you to become me before I love you.

You don’t have to believe what I believe to sit beside me.

You don’t have to agree with everything I say.

You don’t owe me your testimony.

You don’t owe me an explanation.

You don’t have to prove that you’re trying hard enough.

You don’t even have to know what you think yet.

There’s your chair.

I think sometimes we confuse belonging with agreement.

They aren’t the same thing.

We can sit at the same table and have different questions.

Different answers.

Different histories.

Different scars.

Different faiths.

Different doubts.

Different ways of seeing this enormous, complicated life.

And still recognize the humanity sitting across from us.

Maybe that’s part of what love looks like.

Not fixing somebody before making room for them.

Not interrogating them at the doorway.

Not deciding whether their pain is acceptable.

Not requiring emotional unison before offering presence.

Just pulling out the chair.

Jesus did a whole lot of sitting with people.

People other folks had opinions about.

People carrying stories.

People carrying mistakes.

People carrying questions.

People who didn’t have everything figured out before they came near Him.

And that matters to me.

Because I certainly don’t have everything figured out.

I have questions for My Father too.

Some of them hurt.

Some don’t have answers.

Some may never have answers on this side of life.

Yet here I am.

Still loving Him.

Still talking to Him.

Still asking.

Still living.

Still making room.

So this Sunday morning, there is no performance required here.

If you had a wonderful week, bring your joy.

If life wore you completely out, bring your tired.

If you are grieving, bring the empty place.

If you’re angry, bring the anger.

If you believe, bring your faith.

If you doubt, bring your questions.

If you don’t know what you believe, bring yourself.

That is enough for the chair.

My Bestie and me will scoot over.

Coffee’s over there. ☕

And, beloveds, if you happen to see somebody standing near the doorway wondering whether there is room for them—

pull out another chair.

Maybe nobody needs our answers this morning.

Maybe somebody simply needs to hear:

There you are.

Your chair is right here. 🪑❤️

loving me some you
Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe

COME AS YOU ARE…

Come As You Are—There Is Room

Beloveds,

Friday finally got here.

And apparently everybody came through the door carrying something different.

One person brought joy.

One brought grief.

Somebody brought hope.

Somebody brought a blanket because this week has asked entirely too much already.

Somebody is laughing.

Somebody does not feel like laughing at all.

Somebody did something this week that may look tiny to everybody else but took everything they had.

And somebody barely made it to Friday.

Come on in.

You do not have to finish this week looking like somebody else’s version of okay.

That may be one of the hardest things we learn about doing life together.

We can share a room without sharing an emotion.

Your joy does not disrespect my grief.

My quiet does not reject your laughter.

Your need for company does not mean somebody else is wrong for needing a little space.

The person celebrating is not necessarily ignoring what hurts.

The person hurting has not necessarily forgotten everything worth celebrating.

We are human.

We arrive differently.

And maybe belonging was never supposed to require us to become emotionally identical before we could sit beside one another.

Some weeks end with answers.

Some end with victories.

Some end with plans.

Some end with us looking at the same unanswered mess that was sitting there Monday morning.

And some Friday nights the only thing we know for certain is:

I am here.

You are here.

And there is room for both of us exactly as we arrived.

No performance.

No emotional dress code.

No requirement that everybody in the room call this week good just because it is finally over.

We made it here differently.

That counts too.

So bring your joy.

Bring your tired.

Bring your quiet.

Bring the thing you are proud of.

Bring the thing you are still trying to understand.

Bring your popcorn if that is what kind of Friday you are having. 🍿

And if Life comes bursting through the door tonight carrying one more problem like it forgot to give us something—

I believe this may be the one thing the entire room can agree on:

Life.

Don’t.

😂

Happy Friday, beloveds.

Come as you are.

There is room.

loving me some you
Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2026



HEART CHECK FRIDAY: YOU MADE IT. NOW TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF. ❤️

Beloveds.

Friday.

Come in.

Shoes off.

Bag down.

Phone somewhere you can’t hear every ding.

And before anybody starts telling me what they didn’t accomplish this week…

Nope.

Not tonight.

You lived seven days of your life.

That’s worth noticing.

Maybe this week was magnificent.

Maybe it was meh.

Maybe you spent half of it wondering what the fresh hell everybody was doing.

👀

Maybe YOU were the fresh hell.

We’ll discuss your Act Right later.

Tonight, sit down. 😂

There is something I’ve noticed about us.

We are quick to move the finish line.

We finish something and immediately ask:

What’s next?

We survive something and ask:

How quickly can I get back to normal?

We accomplish something and ask:

Why didn’t I do more?

Beloved.

Could you just be here for a minute?

Could you let Friday be Friday?

Could you acknowledge the phone call you finally made?

The boundary you kept?

The thing you tried?

The apology you offered?

The appointment you made?

The moment you chose rest instead of running yourself into the ground?

The laugh you didn’t expect?

The cry you finally let yourself have?

Those things count.

Your life is not made only of giant victories.

Sometimes life is coffee and a comfortable chair and realizing you don’t have anywhere you need to be for the next twenty minutes.

☕🪑

Sometimes that is enough.

Jesus knew how to sit at tables.

ABBA knows how to welcome children home.

The Father knows the whole week you just walked through.

The Holy Spirit knows when your soul needs quiet more than another word.

So we’re not going to fill tonight with words.

You made it here.

Take your shoes off.

Stay awhile.

The 🥜 eaters are somewhere in the back.

For once, they’re behaving.

I don’t trust it.

👀

But we’ll take it.

How’s your heart, beloved?

I’m glad you came home.

❤️

Unapologetically His.
Unapologetically yours.

loving me some you,
Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026

HEART CHECK THURSDAY: HOW’S YOUR HEART, BELOVED? ❤️‍🩹

Beloveds.

It’s me.

Doing another Heart Check.

How is your heart?

You doing okay?

Has somebody looked out for you today?

I don’t have a big speech tonight.

I don’t think we always need one.

Sometimes I think people simply need somebody to remember them.

So I remembered you.

I hope somebody was gentle with you today.

I hope you were gentle with somebody.

I hope somewhere between everything you had to do, you had one moment that belonged only to you.

And if today hurt, I hope you don’t make yourself explain the hurt away tonight.

If today was wonderful, I hope you enjoy wonderful without looking over your shoulder waiting for something bad to happen.

Let good be good.

Let tired be tired.

Let your heart tell the truth.

Jesus, sit with my Beloveds tonight.

ABBA, hold the ones who are tired of being strong.

Father, see the one who thinks nobody sees.

Holy Spirit, bring comfort into the places Cassandra cannot reach with words.

And for my beloved who doesn’t pray with me:

Stay anyway.

The love was never conditional.

I hope somebody handles your heart gently tonight.

Come sit a spell.

That’s all.

❤️

Unapologetically His.
Unapologetically yours.

loving me some you,
Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe